The Care Center on Hazeltine

Although we did not rate this nursing home well overall, we want to point out its decent government inspections in recent years. We awarded it a somewhat respectable score of B- in this category. We believe that one of the most important factors in assessing an inspection report is deficiencies. We especially focus on the severity of those deficiencies. While this place had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.

We also ended up giving this facility a fairly respectable grade in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B-. Our nursing rating is primarily associated with a nursing home's nurse staffing. This facility averages just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, which is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility surprisingly fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. In fact, it performed well in the area of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.

This nursing home's next most favorable category ended up being its long-term care score, where it was given a grade of B-. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than the average nursing home. Lastly, this place was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The next category we assessed is short-term care. We awarded it a grade of C in this area. This is basically a middle of the road grade in this area. Our short-term care grades are critical for prospective residents in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes a broad range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its level of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the measures we assessed. The last item we considered in this category is the number of residents that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 2.3 percent of this facility's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.