Mill Creek

This facility received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its nearly flawless inspection reports in recent years. We gave them an A- in this category. Our inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this category usually have few severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. A couple relatively minor dings are not something to panic about.

Additionally, we also wanted to point out that this nursing home received impressive short-term care marks this year. We gave them one of our better grades in this category, with a B. This turned out to be the facility's second best grade. Our short-term care grades are believed to be more important for people needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not merely nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. We were not able to track down information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The last item we considered in this category is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the facility. We found that 5.9 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

This nursing home's next most favorable category was long-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. Our long-term care grade is often used to assess a nursing home's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services provided by a rehabilitation facility. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients, which is more than the average nursing home. This facility also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final category we rated is nursing. We awarded it a C in that category. This is a perfectly acceptable grade in this area. The nursing rating considers a host of factors. The most heavily weighted one is the number of hours nurses spent with residents. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This figure is significantly below average. Although this place didn't really impress in terms of the quantity of nursing care offered, it performed admirably in a few of our quality measures. It was above average in two of the major subcategories we assess, with positive reviews for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.