Marsh's Edge

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Our inspection scores weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better grades in this category typically have few severe deficiencies. While this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for its nursing grade. Nursing scores are primarily tied to a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.9 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 nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of turning patients at least once a day.

The next area we assessed is long-term care. This nursing home was superb in our long-term care rating as well. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. One of the criteria we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. This is a proven method to minimize unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for the senior population. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to the fourth area, this facility also received an A+ short-term care grade, leaving it as one of an elite group of facilities to earn straight A+'s. Short-term care grades are important for people seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a broad scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.8 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.