St Clare Home

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this nursing home received a much better grade for nursing than it received overall. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A-. When calculating a facility's nursing score, we consider the number of hours nurses are seeing patients as well as the skill levels of those nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home also was awarded a strong long-term care grade. As a matter of fact, we awarded it a B in that category, which happens to be one of our better. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary goal is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 83.92857 percent of its patients, which is somewhat lower than we anticipated. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The third area we analyzed was short-term care. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of B. It actually fared better than most nursing homes in this area. Short-term care ratings are vital for prospective residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually requires more highly-skilled nursing. This includes a wide spectrum of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final datapoint we assessed in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 3.9 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

Turning the final category of inspections, this ended up being this facility's weakest link. Inspection scores are based on a facility's recent inspection reports. We gave this nursing home a D in this category, which is not a very good grade. Since this data is collected by government inspectors, we take it seriously. Our inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. This particular nursing home was hit with a deficiency by government inspectors. We were relieved to find that it was not in a category that suggests that it posed a risk to patient health or safety. Finally, we also would like to point out that this nursing home was assessed significant government fines recently amounting to over $100,000. This typically signifies that a nursing home's poor performance spanned several years.