Sun Health La Loma Care Center

In addition to being a first rate facility overall, this nursing home also excelled in the category of nursing, where it received a grade of A+. Few nursing homes fared better in this area. There are a host of factors within this category. Most of the criteria are tied to nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 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 nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can many times be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This facility has also received near flawless health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this category usually have few severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

The next category we assessed is long-term care. This nursing home also was given an A+ long-term care grade, making it one of the few facilities to be given several A+ category scores. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are kept in good health. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

The last area we scored is short-term care, where this nursing home was given a grade of A. This topped off a very favorable profile. Not many facilities received an A- or better in every category. Our short-term care grades are thought to be most meaningful for folks needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last metric we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 5.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.