The Jefferson

The Jefferson is located in Arlington, Virginia. This facility is among the most impressive facilities we found. In fact, it received our absolute highest rating. You simply can't do any better than this facility. We also gave this nursing home strong scores in all of the major categories. More information about these categories can be found below.

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this facility received high marks in our short-term care rating as well. As a result, it received our highest score in that category with an A+. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a broad scope of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. This nursing home excelled at the highest level in two key staffing areas we assessed. In fact, it supplied about 50% more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the average nursing home. This is generally a great sign. Finally, we looked at the number of residents that returned home from this nursing home. In addition to excelling in the area of physical therapy staffing, we found that it fared as well as just about any facility in the nation with 75.1 percent of its patients returning home.

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 ratings are primarily tied to a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home boasts a really impressive 6 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis, of which a significant percentage of those hours were provided by registered nurses. This is one of the most highly highly trained levels of nurses. This is one of the higher totals of nursing hours we found at any facility. In addition to offering impressive levels of nursing care, this facility also excelled in the quality measures we looked at. It performed as well as any facility in the country when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.

The third category we looked at was long-term care. Contributing to its first-rate resume, this nursing home also performed well in this category. In fact, we gave it a of A for that category. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Unfortunately, we weren't able to track down information on vaccination rates. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Lastly, this nursing home also earned excellent government inspection reports in recent years. We gave it one of our best scores in the area of inspections, with an A. Few facilities received an A- or better in every category. Inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.