The Springs at the Fountains

In addition to being a strong facility overall, this facility also excelled in our short-term care category, where it received an A+. Few nursing homes fared better in this area. In calculating our short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 6.3 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing score. Nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility an A. When calculating our nursing scores, we assess both nursing hours and the training levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning residents more frequently.

This nursing home received a solid inspection report this year as well, with few dings from the applicable government inspectors. As a result, it received one of our better grades in that category with a score of B-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection grades. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be relatively minor. This nursing home was hit with 9 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies an immediate risk to patient safety or health. A few minor dings are not necessarily something to panic about.

The last area we scored was nursing, is this nursing home's worst area. We gave this facility a D in that category. This really was one of just a few weak points on an otherwise strong report card. If you are looking for services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each nursing home's long-term care grades. After assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is more than the majority of nursing homes. To our surprise, this nursing home also fared well at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.