University Place Nursing Center

Although we did not rate this facility well overall, we want to point out its decent grade of B- in the category of nursing. In computing a facility's nursing grade, we look at the amount of time nurses are caring for patients and the levels of training of the nurses. This nursing home averages just 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home surprisingly excelled in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. In fact, it scored well in the area of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be reliable measures of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the number of hours of care provided.

This facility's next highest area ended up being its short-term care score, where it was awarded a grade of B-. In crafting these short-term care scores, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than a typical facility. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

The next most favorable area we awarded this nursing home in any category came in the category of long-term care, where we awarded it a B-. In calculating our long-term care scores, we size up the assistance with daily living offered to the nursing home's patients. After we finished assessing the amount of nursing care, we then looked at the facility's vaccination statistics. Frankly, we were a bit alarmed this nursing home vaccinated only 75 percent of its residents against pneumonia. On a more positive note, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to our final category of inspections, this facility received a grade that's as bad as it gets. We weight this category more heavily than our other categories. When a facility has this bad of an inspection score, you should expect some severe deficiencies on its inspection report. Severe deficiencies indicate a threat to patient safety. This facility had 2 deficiencies by government inspectors. The only favorable thing we found is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they caused a risk to resident health or safety. Finally, CMS flagged this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. This is not what you want to see. We advise you to direct your search elsewhere.