Rancho Mesa Care Center

This facility's overall score was bolstered by the fact that it has received favorable health inspections in recent years. We awarded them a strong score in that area, with a B+. This is a notably better score than the nursing home's overall grade. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection scores. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are quite minor. This nursing home was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to create an immediate risk to resident health or safety. A few minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facility's next best area was its long-term care grade, where it was given a grade of B-. Long-term care grades are meaningful for people looking for non-healthcare services such as personal care. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is better than most nursing homes. This facility was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next highest grade we gave this nursing home in any area came in the category of nursing, where we gave it a grade of C. The nursing category consists of quite a few subcategories, many of which are based on levels of nurse staffing. This place provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Lastly, while this place got dinged a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in a few of our quality measures. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed remarkably well in this subcategory.

The last area we assessed was short-term care, which is a weak spot for this nursing home. We awarded this nursing home a grade of just D for short-term care. In our short-term care rating, we seek to craft a valuable barometer for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we look at a nursing home's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The last metric we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these poor metrics doomed this facility's short-term care grade.