Snohomish Health and Rehabilitation

Although we didn't give this facility a good overall grade, we actually gave it a strong grade in the category of inspections, where it received a B. Arguably the most important factor we consider in determining our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. It is typically best to avoid facilities that have too many deficiencies. While this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

The next most favorable category we gave this nursing home in any area came in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a grade of B-. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for patients in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally requires more skilled nursing services. This includes a wide range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The more important thing is determining what bearing this had on the quality of care. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that just 4.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

We awarded this facility a respectable grade in the area of nursing as well, with a grade of C. Our nursing score consists of several components, however, the most important one is the level of nurse hours per patient per week. This facility provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Lastly, we also looked at several nursing quality measures. While this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality measures. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it did remarkably well in this subcategory. This is generally an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a system of moving patients even once per day.

The final area we rated is long-term care. We gave it an F for this category, which is a very poor grade. If you are looking for services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at long-term care scores. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 98.86364 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.