Bethel Health Care Center

To go along with a strong overall grade, we gave this place a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Arguably the most critical factor we look at in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this area most likely dodged the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This particular nursing home received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

On the list of its many high-end grades, this nursing home received a strong short-term care grade. In fact, we awarded it a score of A- in this area. In determining our short-term care ratings, we size up a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This grade is more often than not a solid assessment of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A-. Our nursing score includes quite a few components, most of which are based on quantities of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed 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 facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning patients more frequently.

The final category we looked at was long-term care, where this nursing home was awarded an A-. This finished off a very impressive report card. Only a select few facilities received an A- or better in in each area we assessed. Facilities that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are kept in good health. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 90 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is a bit below what we expected but still a reasonably acceptable percentage. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we hoped for, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.