The Estates at Carpenters

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Our inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category typically have very few severe deficiencies. This nursing home was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This indicates that the government inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to be an immediate risk to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This high end facility also dominated in the category of long-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A+. Only a small group of nursing homes fared better in this category. Facilities that excel in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility received an excellent nursing grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A in that category. In calculating a nursing home's nursing score, we weigh the amount of time nurses are caring for patients as well as the level of skill of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home 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 state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as having a protocol of moving a resident more often.

In the final category, this nursing home also received a very strong short-term care rating, with a grade of A-. This wrapped up an elite profile. In the category of short-term care, we try to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that 4.8 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.