Berkshire Health Care Center
7 Sandisfield Road Box 216, Sandisfield MA 01255 · (413) 258-4731 · 96.14% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Berkshire Health Care Center is a small nursing home located in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. With an overall rating of B+, this facility should work for most people. You could definitely do much worse than this nursing home. This nursing home also received consistently good grades in each of the major categories. More information about its category grades is available below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 57 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
This facility received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially wanted to point out its nearly flawless government inspections in recent years. We awarded it an A in this category. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating these inspection ratings. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be quite minor. While this place had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility also was given a strong short-term care score. Indeed, we gave it an above average grade of B+ in this area. Our short-term care grades are believed to be more meaningful for people in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more highly-skilled nursing services. This includes not just nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. One reason for this nursing home's strong rating in this area is that it provides a substantially larger volume of physical therapist hours than the average nursing home. The last statistic we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home rather than remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.
Nurse Quality
Another strong feature for this facility is that it received an impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B. In determining a nursing home's nursing score, we consider the amount of time nurses are with patients as well as the level of skill of those nurses. This particular nursing home provided 2.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.
Long-term Care Quality
The last category we looked at is long-term care, in which this nursing home received a B. This nursing home turned out to be very solid across the board. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 97.30942 percent of its patients, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is too frequently a life threatening ailment for nursing home residents so we prefer when a nursing home does not leave this to chance. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.4 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Berkshire Health Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term residents who are suffering from new or worsened pressure ulcers . We bake this statistic into both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents that suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in major injury are often caused by lower quality nursing care. Better nursing care minimizes the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percentage of patients who sustained a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered by many experts to be an indicator of nursing care . UTI's are routinely associated with lower quality nursing care. However, this metric could be misleading for some facilities due to inconsistent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percentage of residents given antipsychotic drugs. These medications are sometimes used for several medical conditions, such as Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is an indication of the percent of long-term patients that are prescribed antianxiety medication. These medications are generally prescribed to residents experiencing anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percentage of residents who received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percentage of residents who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's may indicate the erosion of a resident's health.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of residents that maintained mobility over time. Retaining mobility can be a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care. There is generally a correlation between having fewer hospitalizations and the overall quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
Measures the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term resident care. Avoiding rehospitalizations during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better