Sunset Senior Living

While we were not high on this facility overall, we awarded it a B- for our nursing rating. This grade is better than its overall score. Nursing ratings are primarily based on a nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, our nursing ratings also factor in quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is often a reliable indicator that a place has sufficient quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a facility provides enough nurses aids to assist its residents.

One of this nursing home's more favorable category grades was in the area of short-term care. This ended up being its second best category. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. In calculating our short-term care ratings, we analyze the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other types of therapists. This rating is more often than not a reliable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services. We were surprised to find that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.7 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

This nursing home received its next most favorable category score in the area of long-term care. We awarded this facility a B- in this area, which is an acceptable grade. For prospective residents seeking a permanent residence as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care is a very important category. One of the criteria we considered in addition to nurse's aid hours was vaccinations. Thankfully, this facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 99.710144 percent of its patients. This place keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

In our final category of inspections, this nursing home received an abysmal grade. We weight this grade more heavily than our other categories. For facilities with poor inspection grades, you should really focus on any severe deficiencies found on their inspection reports. This nursing home was hit with one category G through L deficiency, which are among the more severe deficiencies. These categories indicate that the deficiencies identified by inspectors had potential to cause actual harm to residents. We are also concerned by the fact that this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.