Vale Healthcare Center

In addition to being a quality facility overall, this facility really performed well in long-term care, where it received a grade of A-. Facilities that excel in this category typically provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents out of the hospital. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. Our nursing grade is primarily tied to a nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to its impressive category grades, we awarded this nursing home a grade of B+ for our inspections rating. Our inspection grades are tied to many items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that excel in this area typically have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. While this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few relatively minor deficiencies are not something to panic about.

The last category we rated is short-term care. This facility received a very good short-term care score in our assessment, with a grade of B. This facility truly didn't have any weak grades. In calculating our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly trained professionals. This grade is often a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We weren't able to track down registered nurse or physical therapy staffing data for this facility. The final metric we assessed in this area is the number of patients who who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.