Summit Square

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ short-term care grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. With our short-term care rating, we seek to forge a sound measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we analyze the facility's level of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients that were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 6.4 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

This facility also received a virtually flawless government inspection. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. This was one of the few nursing homes to receive multiple A+'s. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this area typically dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. While this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also was given a impressive long-term care grade. In fact, this ended up being this nursing home's third strongest category score. In that category, we gave this facility a score of A. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. After assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The last area we looked at is nursing, where this nursing home was awarded a grade of A-. This completed a very favorable profile. Not many facilities received an A- or higher in in each area we assessed. The nursing grade features a host of data points. The most important factor is the number of hours nurses spent with residents. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also factored a few quality measures into our nursing grades. This facility was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.