The Convalescent Center at Patriots Colony

In addition to faring well overall, this facility earned a nearly flawless inspection report. Therefore, it earned one of our highest scores in that category with an A+. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Facilities with higher grades in this category typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This facility was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

An additional reason we assessed this facility so highly is that it was awarded an A+ short-term care score. This is just about as elite as it gets in this area. Our short-term care grades are presumably most critical for residents needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually requires higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes not just nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we considered in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 6.9 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Moving on our third area, we awarded this nursing home a score of A for its long-term care score. This is a very strong score. Nursing homes that do well in this category typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. After considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is much higher than the majority of nursing homes. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In our last category, this nursing home also received a first-rate nursing score, with an A-. This wrapped up a first-rate report card. In calculating a nursing home's nursing grade, we assess the quantity of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of training of the nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed 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 nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of turning patients more often.