Waters Edge Village

In addition to faring well overall, this facility also received a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it received one of our highest scores in that area with a grade of A+. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to this nursing home's list of achievements, it also received a superb long-term care grade. We awarded them an elite grade of A- in this category. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours is vaccinations. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. This is a proven method to minimize unnecessary hospitalizations for the aged 65 and up population. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next best category we gave this facility in any area came in the area of short-term care, where we awarded it a grade of B-. Short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a vast spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final datapoint we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is below average.

The last category we rated was nursing, in which this nursing home was awarded a grade of C. Although this proved to be its worst category score, this is still not a major area of concern. We assessed the levels of nurses working for the facility, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses spent with residents, in determining our score in this area. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This is a low total compared with most nursing homes. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in some quality-focused measures. We like to look at the percentage of patients who experienced pressure ulcers and major falls. These statistics are indicators of the quality of nursing care, since superior care can reduce these problems.