Savannah Square Health Center

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area generally have very few severe deficiencies. This place received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies to be an imminent risk to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility was given quality marks in the category of short-term care. For this reason, it received one of our best grades in that category with a grade of A+. In crafting our short-term care scores, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The goal is to create a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who returned home from the nursing home. We found that 7.6 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. When computing a facility's nursing score, we look at the quantity of hours nurses are with residents as well as the level of licensure of those nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home Georgia in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a system of turning a resident even once per day.

In the final category we assessed, this nursing home was awarded an impressive grade grade of A in our long-term care category. With this score, the nursing home finished off a straight A report card. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to patients. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is far higher than the average nursing home. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.