Bear Hill Nursing Center at Wakefield
Enter 11 North Street, Stoneham MA 02180 · (781) 438-8515 · 96.56% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Bear Hill Nursing Center at Wakefield is one of just two nursing homes in Stoneham, Massachusetts. We awarded this nursing home an A overall grade, ranking it in the top fifth of all nursing homes in the nation. This is just about as good of a place as you're going to find. Lastly, this nursing home's ownership changed in the last year, so we will need to monitor it to confirm it maintains its high level of care.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 169 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ short-term care grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. Our short-term care grades are based in part on the facility's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This means a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other types of therapy. This facility excelled in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It offered more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the average nursing home. This is generally an excellent sign. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that it outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes with 62.4 percent of its residents returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most facilities.
Long-term Care Quality
We also want to point out the fact that this nursing home was given a high-end grade of A in our long-term care area. Facilities that do well in this category tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. One of the datapoints we considered after nursing hours is vaccinations. This nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a great way to avoid unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for the senior population. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. Here we found that this nursing home had 2.52 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days.
Facility Inspections
In addition, this facility also earned excellent government inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our best grades in that area, with a grade of A. Our inspection grades are tied to many items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. We were not able to find deficiency data for this facility. Without having deficiency related data for this nursing home, it was challenging to grade the place in this area.
Nurse Quality
The fourth area we analyzed is nursing, where this facility received an A-. This topped off an elite report card. Only a select few nursing homes earned an A- or better in every single category. When determining a nursing home's nursing score, we look at the quantity of hours nurses are caring for residents as well as the levels of training of those nurses. This particular nursing home provided 3.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also factored a few quality-based metrics into our nursing grades. This facility was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Bear Hill Nursing Center at Wakefield Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can minimize the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of long-term residents that had a fall which caused major injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing scores.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term stay patients that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's could be an indicator of lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this statistic could also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications may be vital to many residents, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term patients taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of patients who are demonstrating signs of depression. High rates of depression could imply worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for seniors, making these vaccines important for resident well-being.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and bathing. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients that retained mobility levels. Some experts would argue that mobility is vital to residents' mental and physical well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term resident care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding emergency medical situations is one way to gauge short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better