Vi at Palo Alto

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A+. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. Nursing scores are based in large part on quality and quantity of nursing care. This nursing home provides 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

We also gave this facility a score of A+ for its short-term care grade. Our short-term care scores are considered to be most critical for folks in need of a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing services. This means not just nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 6.5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

In addition, this nursing home also earned excellent government inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our best scores in that category, with an A. Inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this category tend to have few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G through L. This tells you 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.

In the final category, we gave this nursing home an A for our long-term care rating. This finished off a very favorable profile. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.