St Mary Center for Rehabilitation & Healthcare

The main reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection score. In fact, its inspection grade was far superior to its overall grade. In our inspections category, we gave this facility a grade of A. Our inspection ratings account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area typically have very few of these severe deficiencies. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

The second highest category we gave this facility in any category came in the category of long-term care, where we awarded it a grade of C. Our long-term care grade is used to gauge a facility's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services offered by a rehabilitation facility. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. We were somewhat surprised to discover that this facility vaccinated a relatively low 89.779 percent of its patients for pneumonia. On a more positive note, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.18 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than many nursing homes.

Another strength of this nursing home is its favorable grade in nursing. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with an impressive grade of D. Our nursing rating analyzes a handful of components, but the most important one is the number of nurse hours spent with patients. With just 2.9 hours of nursing care per resident each day, this nursing home's nurse staffing levels were quite a bit below the national average. Unfortunately, this nursing home also had abysmal scores in some of the quality-based metrics to pair with its low nursing hour totals. We looked at the percent of residents suffering pressure ulcers and we were very disappointed. This facility was at roughly 150 percent of the national average in this measure.

Switching gears to the fourth category, we gave this facility a grade of D in the area of short-term care. This is the facility's least impressive category score. Short-term care grades are typically used to grade a nursing home's performance with rehabilitation. In order to have highly scored rehabilitation services, facilities generally need to feature higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and other types of therapists. Unfortunately, we learned that this nursing home offers less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other facilities. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who who were able to eventually return home from the facility. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this area as well, with just 44.7 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, this was quite a bit below the national average.