Valle Verde Health Facility
900 Calle De Los Amigos, Santa Barbara CA 93105 · (805) 883-4000 · 76.62% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Valle Verde Health Facility is an average-sized non-profit nursing home in Santa Barbara, California. This nursing home received an overall score of A-. Indeed, this is ranked among the five best nursing homes in the city. We could not find many bad things to say about this place. Its scores are as good as they get. The best aspect of this nursing home's impressive profile is its short-term care rating. We discuss short-term care in the next section
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 80 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
On top of receiving a great overall score, this facility also received an A+ in short-term care. In computing our short-term care grades, we analyze a facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly trained professionals. This category is typically a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. This nursing home is above the national average both in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents. These are generally good indicators of quality short-term care. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that it outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes with 69.9 percent of its patients returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most nursing homes.
Facility Inspections
This facility has received near flawless health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A in this category. Arguably the most critical factor we look at in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with better grades in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies are not something to panic about.
Nurse Quality
This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. We assessed the qualifications of nurses at the facility, as well as the number of hours those nurses spent with residents, in determining our rating in this area. This nursing home provides an incredible 4.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is much more care than what is provided by most facilities. Finally, this facility also performed well in several of the quality measures we looked at. For example, in terms of the number of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this place performed better than the national average. This is generally a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented with better nursing care and having a policy of regularly turning residents to avoid bed sores.
Long-term Care Quality
The final category we rated is long-term care, in which this facility was awarded a grade of C. This turned out to be this nursing home's worst area. This is still not a major area of concern. In determining our long-term care grades, we scrutinize the personal care offered to a nursing home's residents. After assessing the very respectable amount of nursing hours provided by this nursing home, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which appears to be higher than the majority of nursing homes. This combination proved to be effective as this nursing home keeps its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0.2 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Valle Verde Health Facility Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percent of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage caused by staying in the same position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of long-term stay residents who have experienced a fall resulting in severe injury. We use this statistic in computing our nursing ratings.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This figure gauges the percent of long-term stay residents who had a urinary tract infection. While a higher rate of these infections could reflect poorly on a facility's hygiene protocols, it can be problematic to compare between nursing homes due to nursing homes having reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percent of patients given antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic drugs are given to residents for many conditions, including dementia. Tragically, in some situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were given antianxiety drugs. These medications are prescribed to residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of residents showing signs of depression. High levels of depression could reveal a less hospitable environment.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percent of residents who were administered the flu and pneumonia vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of long-term residents that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as dressing and eating. Some would argue that this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term residents who maintained mobility. Many in the industry would argue that mobility is important for residents' physical and mental health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric is a measure of the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care. Staying out of the hospital is critical to the physical health of nursing home residents.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percentage of short-term care residents who experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Some experts would argue this is a reliable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better