Shannondale Health Care Center

While we gave this place a weak overall score, we gave it a fairly respectable grade in the category of inspections, where we gave it a grade of B-. This was better than its other categories. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.

One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. This turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility an B-. Nursing ratings are based largely on quality and quantity of nursing care. This facility provided just 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in a few of these quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients experiencing pressure ulcers, it did very well in this metric. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of turning patients more frequently.

The next category we graded was short-term care, where this facility was awarded a grade of B- in this category. In calculating our short-term care grades, we look at the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly trained professionals. This rating is typically a meaningful assessment of the facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. The facility provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Finally, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 3.7 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The last category we looked at is long-term care. This facility received a B- for this area. For long-term care residents, the facility's primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is better than most nursing homes. Finally, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.