Sunset Health Care Center

We want to point out that this nursing home outperformed its overall score in the category of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless government inspection report this year. As a result, we gave it one of our best grades in that category with an A-. Our inspection ratings account for several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this area generally have very few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies shouldn't lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facility's long-term care rating is one of its higher grades. The facility was given a grade of B- in this category. In computing our long-term care ratings, we assess the personal care offered to a facility's residents. In addition to assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to a relatively low 82.40964 percent of its patients, which is quite a bit lower than we expected. Nevertheless, this place keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

We also gave this nursing home a decent score in the category of nursing care, with a grade of C. There are numerous criteria included in this area. Many of these datapoints reflect the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This particular facility provided just 0.2 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This figure is far below average. Lastly, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in a few of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared very well in this subcategory. This is often a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a system of turning a resident even once per day.

The final category we graded was short-term care, which is this nursing home's weakest category. Unfortunately, we gave it an abysmal F for this area, which is obviously very concerning. In crafting these short-term care grades, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to devise a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home offers significantly less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than a typical facility. The last statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents that returned home from the facility. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 0 percent of its residents returning home.