Sun Dial Manor

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection scores. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are relatively insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

An additional strong feature for this facility is that it received an above average short-term care score. In fact, this wound up being its second best category grade. In this category, we gave this facility a B+. Short-term care scores are based on a nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a broad spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 4.9 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B+. Nursing grades are heavily correlated with levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.3 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 generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final category we graded is this facility's poorest area. Nevertheless, even in its worst category we still gave it a respectable grade of C for our long-term care category. In the area of long-term care, we assess the amount of care provided by a facility, as opposed to more healthcare-oriented services. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is higher than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.