Tuttle Care Center

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility really outperformed its overall score in the area of inspections. In fact, it received an excellent inspection report this year. As a result, we gave it one of our highest scores in this category with a grade of A+. Inspection ratings take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facility's short-term care score ended up being one of its more favorable grades. The facility received a grade of C in this area. In our short-term care assessment, we strive to create a fair barometer for rehabilitation. In doing so, we analyze a facility's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The more important thing is determining what effect this had on quality of care. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was quite a bit below the national average.

Moving on to the category of long-term care, this facility was awarded just a D in this category. Nursing homes that do not fare well in this category often do not provide as much nursing care and also may be lagging in some of the areas of routine personal care we assessed. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. We were a bit alarmed this facility vaccinated 82.19178 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is quite a few points less than the national average. To our surprise, this place was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes. This is its best score in this category.

Switching gears to our last category, we gave this facility a D in the area of nursing. This is the facility's worst category rating. Nursing grades are heavily correlated with quality and quantity of nursing care. This nursing home averaged just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is an alarmingly low total. To go along with its low totals in the area of nursing hours per patient, this facility also did not fare as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in calculating our nursing scores. We looked at the percent of patients experiencing major falls and pressure ulcers. This nursing home had more pressure ulcers and falls than the average nursing home. This may be a bad sign when you consider that many bed sores and falls are preventable with better nursing care. Unfortunately, these metrics pulled down this facility's nursing grade significantly.