Van Healthcare

The main reason this turned out to be a decent nursing home is that it earned an elite inspection score. Its inspection score was far superior to its overall score. In the inspections category, we gave this facility an A+. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this area generally have few of these severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

This facility also excelled in the category of nursing, where it earned an B. The nursing score is based on a handful of subcategories, however, the paramount consideration is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This nursing home's third highest category was long-term care. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of C. In computing these long-term care grades, we quantify the facility's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 96.296295 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than the vast majority of nursing homes. This facility was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Our last category is short-term care, where we gave this nursing home a grade of C in that category. In computing our short-term care grades, we assess a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly trained professionals. This grade is often a solid measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. Unfortunately, it does not look like this nursing home provided registered nurse or physical therapist staffing data. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.