Pruitthealth - Covington

In addition to being a respectable facility overall, this facility really excelled in the category of inspections, where it received a grade of A+. Few facilities performed better in this area. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This facility was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate risk to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

This facilities next most favorable category is long-term care. We gave it a grade of C in this area. This is essentially a middle of the pack score in this category. In forming these long-term care ratings, we quantify the nursing home's personal care services. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is more than the vast majority of nursing homes. This nursing home was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This nursing home's next best category ended up being its short-term care grade, where it was given a grade of C. Our short-term care ratings are crucial for people looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a broad range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than the average facility. The hope is that this does not adversely impact the quality of care. The last item we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents that ultimately returned home from the facility. We found that just 4.9 percent of this facility's patients returned home. This figure was below average.

The last category we assessed is nursing, which was this nursing home's weakest category. We gave it an abysmal F in this category, which is obviously a major disappointment. In calculating our nursing scores, we weigh both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of the nurses. With only 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, this nursing home's nurse staffing levels were significantly below the national average. This facility also had terrible marks in several of the quality-based metrics to go along with its low nursing hours. We looked at the percentage of residents experiencing pressure ulcers. This facility was at more than twice the national average in this statistic. This is quite concerning when you consider that many bed sores are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. This ended up sealing the nursing home's fate of receiving a weak nursing grade.