Sunterra Springs Independence

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ short-term care grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to assess measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we looked at in this category is the number of residents that were able to return home from the facility. We found that 5.8 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A. Our nursing grade focuses on the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We consider both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at 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 nursing home the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a patient at least once a day.

Tallying another strong category grade, this facility also excelled in inspections, where it earned an A. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. Our inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none of them were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. A few minor deficiencies aren't necessarily the end of the world.

The final area we rated was long-term care. In this area, we awarded this nursing home a solid grade of C. This actually is this nursing home's weakest area. For prospective patients in need of a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are an important measure. One of the factors we considered after nurse's aid hours is vaccinations. It doesn't look like this nursing home provided vaccination data. Lastly, this facility excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.