Sunshine Health Care

In addition to faring well overall, this facility also received a nearly flawless inspection report. Consequently, it received one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. Inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also received an A+ for its long-term care grade. When nursing homes receive this kind of score in this category it is a good sign for patient care and suggests that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses and aids. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. Our nursing rating weighs a variety of factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the quantity of hours nurses spend with residents. This nursing home provides 0.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving a resident even once per day.

In the final category we assessed, this nursing home received a very favorable grade of A in our short-term care category. With this grade, the facility rounded out a straight A profile. Short-term care scores are based on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a wide scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. 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 final measure we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents that eventually returned home from the facility. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.