The Elms

To pair with its strong overall grade, we gave this nursing home an A+ for our inspection category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are relatively insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

This facility also was awarded a top-shelf short-term care grade. Indeed, this is its second most impressive category score. In that category, this facility received a score of A-. Short-term care grades are crucial for people requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a wide scope of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 5 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

This facility received an impressive long-term care grade as well. We gave it one of our better grades in that area with a score of B+. Facilities that do well in this category typically provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents out of the hospital. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The last category we rated is nursing, where this nursing home received a grade of B+. This wrapped up a first-rate profile. Few facilities earned a B+ or better in every category. Our nursing rating analyzes the facility's nurse staffing levels. We look at both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these areas as good indicators of the caliber of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.