Vista Living of Vernon

On top of performing well in its overall score, this facility received even higher grades in nursing. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with an A-. Nursing grades are based largely on quantity of nursing care available. This facility provided 0 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Additionally, this nursing home also was awarded favorable short-term care scores this year. In fact, we gave it one of our better grades in that area, with a grade of B+. With our short-term care rating, we seek to create a sound gauge for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we assess a facility's scope of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. We were not able to locate information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The final item we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

This nursing home earned a solid inspection report this year as well, with few dings from the applicable government inspectors. As a result, it received one of our better grades in that category with a score of B-. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A couple minor dings are not necessarily something to panic about.

The final area we analyzed is long-term care. This facility was given a grade of C for the category. 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. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 92.045456 percent of its patients. This is slightly below what we expected but still a respectable figure. Nevertheless, this facility excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.