Sellersburg Healthcare Center

Although this place's overall grade was as bad as it gets, it actually didn't perform terribly in our short-term care category. We awarded it a B- for that category, which isn't bad. That said, this was not enough to save its otherwise poor profile. In computing these short-term care scores, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. We were surprised to find that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we assessed. The facility supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

Unfortunately, this facility didn't receive glowing inspections in recent years. We gave it a D for our inspections rating and that actually was its second highest score. Inspection scores account for several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. You should be especially cautious when considering a nursing home that has severe deficiencies on its inspection reports. This particular facility was assessed 7 deficiencies by CMS. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they caused a risk to patient health or safety. Finally, CMS cited this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. Hopefully, its performance improves in the future, but until then we simply can't recommend this facility.

Unfortunately, we gave this facility an F for its nursing grade. In computing a facility's nursing rating, we consider the quantity of hours nurses are with patients as well as the skill levels of those nurses. This place provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This is not a very impressive figure. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in calculating our nursing grades. This nursing home fared well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

The next category we graded was long-term care, where this nursing home received a bottom of the barrel grade in this category also. Unfortunately, we gave it an F in this category, which is definitely a major concern. If you are looking for services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care ratings. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.03 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than many nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.