Royalton Manor

Royalton Manor is one of only two available facilities in Saint Joseph, Michigan. We awarded it an overall grade of B-, which is a middle of the pack rating. Based on our assessment, this place has some redeeming qualities. One of the better aspects of this nursing home's report card is its strong short-term care rating, which is addressed in the next paragraph.

We want to point out that this facility earned a far better grade for short-term care than it received overall. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with an A. In determining our short-term care ratings, we assess the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly trained professionals. This area is typically a meaningful assessment of a facility's rehabilitation services. When we assessed this facility's nursing hours, we found it offered more care from registered nurses than most nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who eventually returned home from this facility. It fared as well as just about any facility in this area with 60.2 percent of its residents returning home.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B in that category, which is one of our better scores. The nursing score weighs numerous subcategories. The most important factor is the amount of time nurses spent with residents. This nursing home provides 3.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also factored a few quality-based metrics into our nursing grades. This place was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.

Turning to our inspection category, it appears this facility has received respectable inspections in recent years as well. We gave it a B- in this category. We believe that one of the most critical factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. In this regard, we especially look at the severity of those deficiencies. While this nursing home 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 tells you the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in this industry.

Moving on to the fourth category, this nursing home didn't fare very well. Due to a rock bottom grade of F in long-term care, this was its poorest category. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary objective 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 aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility administered the vaccine to 99.48718 percent of its patients, which is a very respectable datapoint. To our surprise, this place also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had just 1.06 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.