Pruitthealth - West Atlanta

Although we did not rate this facility favorably overall, we want to point out its relatively solid inspections in recent years. We gave it a respectable grade of B in this area, which is much better than its overall score. Inspection grades are tied to many datapoints found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key thing to look for on these reports. You should especially avoid facilities that have severe deficiencies associated with endangerment of patients. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

This nursing home's second best category was its short-term care score, where it was given a grade of C. Our short-term care ratings are based in part on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a vast spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who eventually returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below the national average.

Turning to the area of nursing care, this facility received a grade of just D in this category. In determining our nursing grades, we analyze both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in computing our nursing ratings. This place fared well in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.

The next category we looked at is long-term care. This facility was given a bottom of the barrel grade of F in that area. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility vaccinated 99.68848 percent of its residents, which is an above average total. To our surprise, this nursing home also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Sadly, some of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.