The Center at Rock Creek

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great facility is that it earned a strong short-term care score. In that category, we gave this nursing home an A. Short-term care grades are critical for individuals in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates more skilled nursing services. This means a wide scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 6.4 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. Nursing ratings are primarily tied to the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility 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 many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of moving residents more often.

Adding to this facility's impressive resume, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for our inspections rating. Inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

This nursing home's worst area was long-term care, which is the final category we looked at. In this area, we awarded this nursing home a grade of just D. We wanted to point out this possible weak spot, but you shouldn't focus exclusively on a single bad area either. In calculating our long-term care ratings, we analyze the personal care offered to the nursing home's patients. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.