The Laurels of Pender

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility has received near flawless inspections recently. We gave them an impressive grade of A+ in this area. Inspection grades account for several factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this area generally have very few severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another one of this facility's above average category grades came in the category of long-term care. We gave them one of our higher scores in that category, with a score of B+. When facilities receive this type of score in this category it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses aids. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 98.59155 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping patients healthy. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Additionally, this nursing home also was given favorable short-term care scores this year. In fact, we gave them one of our better scores in that area, with a score of B. In the category of short-term care, we strive to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we considered in this category is the number of patients who returned home from the nursing home. We found that 5 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

The final area we looked at is nursing, where this nursing home received a B. This actually turned out to be this facility's worst category. A facility is doing something right when their poorest grade still rates higher than most other facilities. Nursing ratings are based largely on quality and quantity of nursing care. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at a few quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home excelled in these areas, with excellent scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care a nursing home provides.