Sylmar Hlth Rehab Center

While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of C in that category. In calculating our nursing ratings, we assess both staffing levels and the training levels of those nurses. This facility averages just 0.2 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which is not an impressive total. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility surprisingly fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It scored well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

We gave this nursing home a grade of just D for our long-term care grade and that actually turned out to be its next highest score. For patients looking for a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are very important. Once we concluded our assessment of the amount of care provided by nurses, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination record. We were optimistic to find that this nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Surprisingly, this place also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.

Turning to the area of short-term care, this facility received a grade of just D in that category. In computing our short-term care scores, we quantify the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides significantly less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average nursing home. Finally, we considered the percentage of patients that who were able to eventually return home from this facility. This nursing home didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

In our last category of inspections, this facility received an F here. For nursing homes with poor inspection scores, you should really focus on any severe deficiencies found on their inspection reports. This particular facility had 7 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we found is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that indicate that they caused a threat to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility also received 14 substantiated complaints in recent years. This is yet another bad sign.