Thornapple Manor

On top of being a first rate nursing home overall, this nursing home also excelled in long-term care, where it received an A+. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. One of the criteria we considered in addition to this facility's quality nursing hours is vaccines. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are a great way to avoid unnecessary deaths for the elderly. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.27 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than many nursing homes.

Adding to its first-rate profile, this nursing home also performed well in our short-term care category. In fact, it received a score of A for that category. With our short-term care grade, we seek to create a meaningful barometer for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we look at the nursing home's scope of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. This proved to be a real strength for this nursing home. It outperformed the vast majority of facilities in the nation with 62.3 percent of its patients returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most facilities.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. We scrutinized the qualifications of nurses employed by the facility, as well as the number of hours those nurses worked with residents, in calculating our score in this category. This place provides an incredible 5.1 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is far more care than what is provided by most nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home also excelled in several quality-based metrics we looked at. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, this place performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally an indicator that a place has reliable quality controls. Many pressure ulcers can be avoided by offering better nursing care and a system of moving residents more frequently.

Turning to our inspection category, this facility excelled in that area, which is based on the nursing home's recent inspection reports. In fact, we awarded it an elite grade of A- for that category. This completed this place's straight A report card. Our inspection grades are based on items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that receive favorable grades in this area typically have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. While this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This means the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.