As our loved ones grow older, we must make many decisions with (and, sometimes, for) them. Can they live alone with the help of a home health agency? Or is a nursing home a safer option? When faced with these emotionally charged decisions, you want to choose the residential environment that offers the best care for the situation.
Continuing its service of “best of” lists, Palm Springs Life partnered with Health Grades Inc. to identify the desert’s top nursing homes and home health agencies.
Nursing homes provide the most care — around the clock — compared to other types of senior living residences, such as assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.
When choosing a nursing home, consider location for your loved one’s comfort and your own access. Proximity is important for emergencies, but also for regular visits, which affect the resident’s physical and mental health.
Before visiting a nursing home, check its records through state and federal agencies to ensure it meets all regulations and to look for any recent violations. Also make sure it can meet any special needs your loved one requires to care for specific conditions and illnesses, as well as dietary requirements and other personal considerations.
You should also visit the nursing home a few times before admitting your loved one into any nursing home. Become familiar with the environment and care the residents receive. Observe how residents are dressed and groomed. Also consider payment options. You’ll eventually know if it is the right environment.
Choosing a nursing home or a home health agency can be stressful and emotional. We hope our list of the desert’s best will make your work a bit easier.
ABOUT HEALTHGRADES
Health Grades Inc. is the leading healthcare ratings organization, providing quality ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans, and hospitals. Millions of consumers and hundreds of the nation’s largest employers, health plans, and hospitals rely on HealthGrades’ independent ratings, consulting, and products to make decisions based on the quality of care. With more than 8 million monthly visitors, www.healthgrades.com is the leading destination for patients choosing healthcare providers and a top 10 healthcare property, according to comScore.
HOW HEALTHGRADES RATES NURSING HOMES
Nursing home ratings are based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Licensing survey data came from CMS’ Online Survey Certification and
Reporting database. Complaint survey data came from CMS’ Skilled Nursing
Facility Complaint database. To rate more than 16,000 U.S. nursing homes, HealthGrades analyzes:
* Deficiencies (unmet standards) from the four most recent licensing surveys within the past eight years.
* Compliant surveys for the last four years.|
Each nursing home received several scores from the analysis of licensing and complaint surveys. The scores are based on how unmet standards impacted resident care. Next, HealthGrades performs a statistical analysis of these scores to produce a weight for each area. The weighted scores are summed to produce an overall scores for each nursing home. Based on each nursing home’s score, HealthGrades applies the following rating system:
***** Best — The top 30 percent of all nursing homes within each state
*** Average — The middle 40 percent of all nursing homes within each state
* Poor — The bottom 30 percent of all nursing homes within each state
HOW HEALTHGRADES RATES HOME HEALTH AGENCIES
To help consumers evaluate and compare home health agencies, HealthGrades analyzes:
* Licensing survey data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Online Survey Certification and Reporting database.
* Complaint survey data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Home Health Agency Complaint database. Home health agencies certified for Medicare and/or Medicaid must meet certain regulations for compliance with standards of patient care. Home health agency licensing surveys occur every 12 to 36 months. Complaint surveys occur to investigate a registered complaint. To be included in the analysis, a home health agency must:
• Have their most recent licensing survey within 51 months from the date HealthGrades receives the data;
• Be active in the Medicare program at the time HealthGrades receives the data; and
• Have more than one licensing survey.
HealthGrades developed a proprietary weighting system that translates 15 data elements into numeric scores.
* Complaint surveys within the last four years that resulted in a citation (deficiency) and those that resulted in a citation and were dated within six months of each other.
* Condition-level deficiencies (very serious deficiencies that may give cause for penalties or de-certification by Medicare) on the most recent survey and three prior surveys.
* Standard-level deficiencies (non-serious deficiencies that require a plan for correction) on the most recent survey and three prior surveys.
These 15 scores were then added to obtain an overall weighted average score. Home health agencies were sorted by state based on the overall score. Based on each home health agency’s overall score, HealthGrades applies the following rating system:
©2011 Health Grades Inc. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or reprinted without permission from Health Grades Inc. Use of this information is governed by the HealthGrades User Agreement, which can be viewed at www.healthgrades.com.
Disclaimer: HealthGrades obtains its information from sources it believes to be reliable. While HealthGrades endeavors to provide the most accurate, up to date information available, because of the possibility of human and mechanical error as well as other factors, HealthGrades cannot be responsible or liable for any errors or omissions in its information or the results obtained from the use of such information. Users should obtain any additional information necessary to make an informed decision.
***** Best — The top 30 percent of all home health agencies within each state
*** Average — The middle 60 percent
of all home health agencies within each state
* Poor — The bottom 10 percent of all home health agencies within each state
A detailed version of this methodology is available at www.healthgrades.com.
TOP NURSING HOMES
*****
Country Villa Rancho Mirage Healthcare Center
39950 Vista Del Sol
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
1-760-340-0053
Number of beds: 99
Desert Regional Medical Center Skilled Nursing Facility
1150 N. Indian Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
1-760-323-6511
Number of beds: 34
The Fountains at the Carlotta
41505 Carlotta Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92211
1-760-346-5420
Number of beds: 59
***
California Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
2299 N. Indian Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
1-760-325-2937
Number of beds: 80
Indio Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
47763 Monroe St.
Indio, CA 92201
1-760-347-0750
Number of beds: 99
Manorcare Health Services
74350 Country Club Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92260
1-760-341-0261
Number of beds: 178
Premier Care Center for Palm Springs
2990 E. Ramon Road
Palm Springs, CA 92264
1-760-323-2638
Number of beds: 99
TOP HOME HEALTH AGENCIES
*****
Maxim Healthcare Services
70017 Highway 111, Suite 5
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
1-760-202-0891
***
A Plus Home Health Care
1900 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
1-760-323-5510
Desert Home Health Services
558 S. Paseo Dorotea
Palm Springs, CA 92264
1-760-318-9006