Saunders Medical Center

One of the reasons this place received a great overall grade is that it received a very impressive nursing score. In that area, we awarded this facility an A. The nursing grade weighs quite a few components, however, the main consideration is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home 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 impressive profile, this nursing home also performed at a high level in the category of inspections. In fact, it earned a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with a score of A-. Our inspection grades are tied to several pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this area typically have few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Turning to an additional strength for this facility, we awarded them one of our more favorable grades in our short-term care category as well, with a grade of B+. In computing these short-term care grades, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our objective is to create a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

The last category we analyzed is long-term care. We gave this facility an acceptable score in this area, with a C. Although this is not as high as some of this facility's other grades, it is nevertheless a middle of the pack score. In determining our long-term care ratings, we look at the personal care received by a facility's patients. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 98.00995 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is better than the average nursing home. Lastly, this place was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.