The River Gardens Rehab and Care Center

The River Gardens Rehab and Care Center is the only nursing home located in Bullhead City, Arizona. This nursing home received an overall grade of B+, which is a well above average rating. Based on our analysis, this nursing home has quite a bit going for it. The best part of this facility's impressive profile is its inspection score. Inspection grades are discussed in the next paragraph

On top of being a strong facility overall, it also received A+ inspections recently. Its inspections were virtually perfect. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining our inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these are relatively insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility is also above average in the category of short-term care, where it was given a score of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. One reason for this place's strong score in short-term care is that it offers a significantly greater volume of hours of physical therapy to its residents than the typical facility. The last statistic we assessed in this area is the number of patients that who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Arizona in this area with 64 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, at most facilities, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.

This facility is also strong in the area of long-term care, where it was awarded a grade of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this area. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. One of the statistics we considered on top of nurse's aid hours was vaccines. It doesn't appear that this nursing home submitted information about vaccinations. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Turning to our final category, we gave this facility a D in our nursing category. This is the facility's worst category score. However, we wouldn't dwell on a single weak score. Nursing ratings are mostly tied to a nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 3.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which is below the national average. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. This place fared well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these metrics to be indicators of the quality of nursing care.