Sterling Park Senior Living

We also wanted to emphasize that this nursing home has received near flawless inspections recently. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Our inspection ratings account for a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. This place was assessed 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of these deficiencies an immediate threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also was awarded a very strong long-term care grade. This actually is this nursing home's second most impressive category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility a score of A. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it typically means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. On top of considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia tragically can be a dangerous condition for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a facility doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Contributing to its strong assessment, this nursing home also was given a superb short-term care score, with a grade of A. Our short-term care grade is typically used to score a nursing home's performance with rehabilitation To provide quality rehabilitation services, facilities generally need to offer better levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists and other types of therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents that eventually returned home from the facility. We found that 5.2 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

In the last area, this facility also received an impressive nursing rating, with a grade of A. This rounded out a straight A report card. Our nursing rating looks at the facility's level of nurse staffing. We weigh both the levels of skill of the nurses as well as the number of hours spent with residents. This nursing home averages 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 nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.