Sands Point Center for Health and Rehabilitation

Sands Point Center for Health and Rehabilitation is a large nursing home located in Port Washington, New York. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of B+. A grade of this caliber requires favorable scores in most areas. Based on the data we reviewed, you could do much worse than this place. This facility was better in some categories than others, but it did not have any poor grades in any of the major areas discussed below. More information about these categories can be found below.

To pair with its strong overall grade, we gave this facility an A+ for our inspections rating. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better grades in this area typically have few of these severe deficiencies. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among the reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a dominant short-term care score. In fact, short-term care ended up being its second most favorable category score. In that category, we awarded this facility a score of A. Our short-term care grades are thought to be more meaningful for patients in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not only nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. This nursing home elevated its grade in this category by offering more care from registered nurses to its residents than the average facility. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that it outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes in the nation with 64 percent of its residents returning home. This is a much higher rate than most facilities.

This facility was awarded a favorable long-term care score as well. We gave it one of our better grades in that category with a grade of B+. Nursing homes that receive this kind of score in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. Once we finished looking at the quantity of nursing care, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 98.36066 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is too frequently a life or death ailment for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a nursing home doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.53 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes.

The last area we graded ended up being this nursing home's poorest area. Nevertheless, even in its weakest link we still gave it a respectable grade of C in nursing. There are numerous data points included in this area. Many of these data points relate to the quantity of nurse staffing. This facility provided 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in some quality-focused statistics. Specifically, we look at the percent of residents who sustained pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these metrics as predictive measures of the quality of nursing care, since better care tends to reduce these problems.