Swedish Covenant Hospital

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this area usually have few of these severe deficiencies. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

In addition, this facility was given quality marks in the category of short-term care. As a result, it was given one of our highest grades in that area with a score of A+. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for prospective residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a wide spectrum of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 7.5 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

Adding to its impressive resume, this nursing home also excelled in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that category. Nursing ratings are based in large part on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a policy of turning residents more frequently.

In the final category, this facility also was given an impressive long-term care grade, with a grade of B+. This topped off an elite profile. For prospective residents in need of a permanent place to live rather than skilled nursing, long-term care is a very important category. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. We were not able to track down information about this nursing home's vaccination rates. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.