Truman W Smith Childrens Care Center

This facility received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially would like to emphasize its nearly flawless health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an A in this area. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some are quite minor. This place was hit with 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that CMS didn't deem any of these deficiencies to create an imminent risk to patient safety or health. We should point out that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

This nursing home also was given a strong long-term care score. Indeed, we gave it an above average grade of B+ in this category. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category tend to provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are kept in good health. Once we assessed the amount of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia can be a deadly condition for nursing home patients so we like it when a nursing home does not roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Turning to the category of nursing care, this facility didn't perform quite as well in this area as some of the categories discussed above. Nevertheless, a grade of B- in this category is by no means a bad score. Our nursing category includes several subcategories, most of which are associated with quantities of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This figure is far below average. Lastly, we also assessed several nursing quality measures. Although this place got docked a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in a few of these quality metrics. With less than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed well in this metric. This can be a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning residents more often.

Switching gears to our next category, this nursing home didn't fare very well. Due to an abysmal grade of F in that area, this is clearly this nursing home's weakest category. Our short-term care ratings are likely more meaningful for folks needing rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires additional highly-skilled nursing. This includes not merely nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the measures we assessed. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.