Sherman Oaks Health & Rehab

The main reason this facility received a decent overall grade is its impeccable inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our higher scores in that category, with an A-. This is a much better score than the facility's overall grade, which was decent but not in the elite range. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Facilities with higher grades in this category typically dodged the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. While this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home's long-term care rating turns out to be one of its respectable scores. The nursing home was awarded a B- in this category. In determining our long-term care scores, we analyze the assistance with daily living offered to the facility's patients. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 93.53933 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is a bit lower than we were hoping for but still a respectable percentage. Nevertheless, this nursing home was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

We also gave this nursing home a decent score in the category of nursing care, with a grade of C. Our nursing rating weighs quite a few subcategories, many of which are based on levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this place fared better in some of the quality measures we assessed. It scored well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the number of hours of care provided.

This nursing home's worst area is short-term care, which is the final area we analyzed. For this category, we gave this nursing home a grade of D. Our short-term care grades are presumably more meaningful for patients needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally requires additional highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not just nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. With a grade this poor for this area, we were not surprised to discover this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we assess. The nursing home supplied substantially fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most facilities. The final measure we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this area as well, with just 3.7 percent of its patients returning home.