The Gardens at Winsted

This facility received a very favorable short-term care rating. In fact, its short-term care grade ended up being its best category. In that area, we gave this them a B+. Our short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This means a wide range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

This facility also received a favorable inspection grade. In fact, its inspection grade proved to be its second best category. In that category, we gave this nursing home a B. Inspection ratings are based on several items found on the a nursing home's inspection reports. Facilities that excel in this category tend to have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This nursing home was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This means that the inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to create an immediate threat to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

Next, we looked at the nursing category where we awarded this nursing home a grade of C, which is a decent grade. There are a variety of criteria within this category. Many of the subcategories are tied to the quantity of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures. While this facility got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality-based measures. With less than five percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it did very well in this subcategory. This can be a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving patients even once per day.

The last area we analyzed was long-term care, which ended up being this nursing home's weakest area. We gave this nursing home a D in that area. If you are looking for anything other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at long-term care scores. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Thankfully, this facility gave the vaccine to 99.206345 percent of its patients, which is a very respectable datapoint. To our surprise, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. Sadly, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.