The Forum at Desert Harbor

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility has received near flawless health inspections recently. We gave them an A+ in this category. Our inspection ratings are based on datapoints located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that score well in this category tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This particular nursing home received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also was given an A+ short-term care grade, rendering it one of the few facilities to be awarded more than one A+ category scores. In the area of short-term care, we endeavor to evaluate indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We analyze a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we assessed in this area is the number of patients who eventually returned home from the facility. We found that 7.4 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

This first-rate facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Nursing grades are based largely on nurse staffing levels. This nursing home provides 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last category we graded was long-term care, where this nursing home was given a grade of A. This finished off a very impressive report card. Very few facilities received an A- or higher in every single category. In a long-term care environment, the primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. We were not able to locate this place's vaccination data. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.