The Laurels of Forest Glenn

In addition to having a decent overall grade, we also wanted to point out that this nursing home received favorable nursing marks this year. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a B. This proved to be the facility's top grade. Our nursing grade considers many datapoints. The most important variable is the number of hours nurses spend with residents. This particular nursing home provided 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.

This facility received its second most favorable category score in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a B- in this area, which is a decent score. In crafting these short-term care grades, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our objective is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility offered fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 4.8 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was actually quite a bit below average.

We also found that this facility has earned favorable inspections in recent years. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B- in this category. This is better than many nursing homes in this category. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. While this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

The next category we looked at is long-term care. We gave this nursing home a C in that area. Our long-term care grade is generally used to assess a facility's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services offered by a rehabilitation facility. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 85.62874 percent of its patients. This is many points below what we expected. On a more positive note, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.