Sarah Jane Living Center

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Arguably the most critical factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. This facility was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to cause an imminent risk to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

In addition, this nursing home received dominant marks in the category of long-term care. As a result, it was given one of our most impressive scores in that category with a grade of A+. When facilities receive a score in this range in this category it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. We analyzed the licensure of nurses employed by the facility, in addition to the quantity of time the nurses were with residents, in calculating our grade in this category. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

In the last category, this nursing home also was awarded an excellent short-term care grade, with a B+. This completed a first-rate profile. Our short-term care scores are considered to be most meaningful for patients needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation generally utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing services. This includes not merely nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.