Rockwood Manor

While we didn't give this facility a good overall score, we actually gave it a relatively strong grade in the category of inspections, where it received a grade of B+. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. You generally want to avoid nursing homes with a list of deficiencies flagged. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This means the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

This nursing home was awarded its next most favorable category score in the category of long-term care. We gave this nursing home a grade of B- in this area, which is a decent score. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is an above average figure. This place keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This facility's next best category ended up being its short-term care score, where it was given a C. Our short-term care grades are vital for patients in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates more highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a broad range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The tricky part is determining what effect this had on quality of care. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who 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 quite a bit below average.

The next category we analyzed is nursing, where this facility received a rock bottom score in this area as well. We gave it a lowly F in this category, which is obviously a major disappointment. Nursing scores are heavily correlated with quality and quantity of nursing care. This place averaged only 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is an alarmingly low total. In addition to receiving below average marks for nursing hours, this place was less impressive in some of the quality-based measures we looked at in computing our nursing ratings. We looked at the percent of residents experiencing pressure ulcers and found this place was at approximately 150 percent of the national average in this metric. This is a bad sign when you consider that many bed sores are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. This statistic really dragged down this facility's nursing score substantially.