Rockwood South Hill

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. The nursing rating analyzes several datapoints, most of which are associated with quantities of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Adding to its high-end profile, this facility also performed well in our long-term care area. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that area. Facilities that receive this type of score in long-term care tend to provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is much higher than the majority of nursing homes. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning our third category, this nursing home received an excellent short-term care grade. In fact, we gave it a score of A in that category. In computing our short-term care ratings, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to formulate a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

Finishing off its excellent profile, this facility also performed well in the area of inspections. We awarded it a B+ for that category. Arguably the most important factor we look at in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This nursing home received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered severe. This indicates that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate threat to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.