Spring House Estates

On top of being a great facility overall, it also earned A+ government inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually perfect. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection grades. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite minor. While this place had some deficiencies on its report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To complement its elite assessments in other areas, we awarded this facility a grade of A- for its short-term care grade. In computing our short-term care ratings, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our objective is to formulate a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Fortunately, this nursing home offers both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities offer both. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

This facility also was awarded a very strong long-term care score. In fact, this turned out to be this nursing home's third most impressive category score. In that area, this facility received a score of A-. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The fourth category we scored is nursing, where this nursing home received a B+. This wrapped up an elite report card. Few facilities earned a B+ or higher in every single category. Our nursing score looks at the facility's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the quantity of hours spent with residents. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving residents at least once a day.