The Jefferson

On top of receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home also received an A+ in short-term care. In the category of short-term care, we seek to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that 6.8 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

In addition, this facility also earned a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A. Perhaps the most critical factor we look at in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with higher grades in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This nursing home received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This means that CMS didn't deem any of these deficiencies an immediate risk to resident safety or health. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. Our nursing rating is based on the facility's level of nurse staffing. We weigh both the levels of skill of the nurses as well as the amount of time spent with patients. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at 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 facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving patients more frequently.

The next category we graded is long-term care. We gave this facility an acceptable score in that area, with a grade of B-. Although this wasn't as high as a few of this facility's other scores, it is nevertheless not a terrible score. In calculating our long-term care grades, we look at the personal care received by a nursing home's patients. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate this place's vaccination data. Lastly, this place was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.