Union Plaza Care Center

On top of performing well in its overall grade, this nursing home performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. Our inspection ratings account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area tend to have few of these severe deficiencies. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to this facility's list of achievements, it also received a fine long-term care grade. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this area. When facilities receive a score in this range in long-term care it generally means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. After we finished looking at the quantity of nursing care, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 99.15164 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is too frequently a dangerous health condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a facility does not roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The third category we looked at is short-term care. Unfortunately, we awarded this facility a relatively poor grade in the category of short-term care, where we awarded it a D. Our short-term care grades are presumably more critical for residents in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing. This means not just nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. In this nursing home's case, we found that it provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The last statistic we considered in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these subpar metrics doomed this nursing home's short-term care score.

This nursing home's worst area is nursing, which is the final area we looked at. Sadly, it received an abysmal F for this area. Despite several strong grades in other areas, this grade is still a bit of a concern so we wanted to make a note of it. Nursing ratings are tied to nurse staffing levels. This nursing home offered a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is not a very impressive figure. While this facility's nursing hours were below average, it actually surprised us in a few of the qualitative areas in this category. In particular, we were pleased to see that its patients appear to be sustaining fewer pressure ulcers than the national average.