Westminster St Augustine

In addition to faring well overall, this nursing home also received a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it earned one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. Inspection grades account for several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this category usually have very few severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This tells you the inspectors did not deem 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.

This facility also received an A+ for its short-term care grade. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to evaluate measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this area is the number of patients who returned home from the facility. We found that 6.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

This nursing home also was strong in the area of long-term care, where we gave it a score of A. Very few nursing homes fared better in this area. Facilities that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. One of the factors we considered in addition to nursing hours was vaccinations. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a proven method to minimize negative health outcomes for the senior population. 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.

In the final category we analyzed, this facility was given a very strong grade of A in our nursing category. With this score, the nursing home topped off a straight A report card. There are a host of subcategories within this grade. Most of these criteria are tied to staffing levels. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a system of moving a resident at least once a day.