Berkshire Health Care Center

On top of receiving a great overall grade, this facility also received top notch health inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our higher scores in that area, with an A-. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Although this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. We should point out that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. In that category, we awarded this facility an B+. Nursing scores are heavily correlated with quantity of nursing care available. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this place 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 Massachusetts in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of moving residents more frequently.

The third area we looked at was long-term care. This nursing home received an impressive long-term care score, with a grade of B+ in the category. Facilities that do well in this category typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. After assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 97.22222 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is much higher than most nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The fourth category we scored was short-term care, where this nursing home received a B+. This wrapped up an elite report card. Not many nursing homes received a B+ or better in in each area we assessed. Short-term care grades are crucial for patients needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a broad spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this nursing home provided information on registered nurse or physical therapist staffing. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.