Sunny Hill Care Center

To pair with a strong overall score, we awarded this nursing home an A+ for our inspections rating. These inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This facility was assessed 7 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This tells you that CMS didn't consider any of the 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 facility is also above average in the area of long-term care, where it was given a grade of B+. It outpaced most nursing homes in this area. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

In addition, this nursing home also was awarded favorable short-term care grades in our assessment. In fact, we awarded it one of our stronger scores in that area, with a score of B+. Short-term care grades are generally employed to measure a nursing home's rehabilitation services In order to provide quality rehabilitation services, nursing homes generally need to offer better levels of skilled nursing services. These types of services include registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other licensed professionals. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that 5.6 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

The last area we looked at is nursing. We awarded this facility one of our better scores in this category, with a grade of B. Even though this is not as strong as several of this facility's other grades, it is nevertheless a perfectly acceptable score. We looked at the levels of nurses at the nursing home, as well as the quantity of time the nurses worked with residents, in calculating our grade in this category. 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.