The Waters of Greencastle

While this nursing home's overall grade was decent, it really fared well in the area of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our highest scores. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this place had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies are not necessarily something to panic about.

We also awarded this facility a solid grade in the category of long-term care, where it received a B-. For patients looking for a permanent place to live rather than skilled nursing, long-term care grades are an important measure. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is more than the average nursing home. This nursing home was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The third category we analyzed is short-term care, where this facility received a grade of B- in this area. In the category of short-term care, we strive to qualify indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The last area we assessed was nursing. We awarded this nursing home a C in that category. Our nursing grade analyzes many subcategories, but the main one is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This figure is significantly below average. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures. Although this place got docked a bit for nursing hours, it actually excelled in a few of these quality-based measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients experiencing pressure ulcers, it performed well in this metric. This can be a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving residents more frequently.