The Court at Palm Aire

We also wanted to emphasize that this nursing home earned near flawless inspections recently. We gave them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Perhaps the most critical factor we look at in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this category most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This facility was hit with 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies an immediate risk to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This top notch nursing home also performed remarkably in the area of short-term care, where we gave it a score of A+. Few facilities performed better in this area. In forming these short-term care ratings, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this category is the number of patients that returned home from the facility. We found that 6.8 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

We also want to note the fact that this facility was awarded a dominant grade of A in our long-term care area. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. After we finished assessing the volume of care provided by nurses, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly can be a dangerous ailment for nursing home residents so we like it when a facility does not leave this to chance. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In the last area, this facility also received a first-rate nursing grade, with a B+. This topped off an elite profile. In determining a facility's nursing grade, we look at the amount of time nurses spend with residents and the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.