Blaire House of Worcester

In addition to earning a great overall rating, this facility fared even better in the area of inspections which is based on the facility's recent inspections. We awarded it an A for that category, which is one of our highest grades. Inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This means CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in the industry.

This nursing home was given a strong long-term care grade as well. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that area with a score of B. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. After assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 99.53917 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B. There are a number of factors within this category. Most of these criteria are tied to the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place 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 by employing a protocol of moving patients at least once a day.

Switching gears to our fourth category, this facility received a grade of B- in short-term care, which is generally a respectable grade. Our short-term care ratings are arguably more important for those requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates more highly-skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. It does not appear that this nursing home provided information about its staffing of registered nurses or physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this area is the percentage of residents that who were able to eventually return home from the facility. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.