Brewster Convalescent Center

One of the reasons this proved to be a decent nursing home is it earned a very favorable nursing score. Its nursing grade is its best category. In that category, we awarded this facility a B. Our nursing score looks at the facility's level of nurse staffing. We weigh both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the quantity of hours spent with residents. 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 place 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 often be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of moving residents more frequently.

This nursing home also was given a favorable grade in our short-term care category. We gave this nursing home an above average grade of B in that area. In crafting our short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The goal is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this area is the number of residents who who were able to eventually 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 facility on a permanent basis.

It should also be noted that this facility's inspection score was strong as well. In fact, we awarded it a B for its inspection reports, which is one of our better scores. Inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place was hit with 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to resident safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies shouldn't stop you from considering a nursing home.

The last category we scored is long-term care, which was this nursing home's least impressive category. We gave this nursing home a grade of D in this category. In a long-term care environment, the primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. One of the criteria we considered on top of nursing hours is vaccinations. Fortunately, this nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. To our surprise, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.