Cambridge North Healthcare Center

Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we awarded it a grade of C for our nursing rating. Our nursing grade is largely tied to a facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It scored well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is every bit as important as the number of hours of care offered.

In addition, we gave this nursing home a rock-bottom F in the category of short-term care. Our short-term care grades are presumably most critical for individuals requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not only nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. As you might expect, we learned that this place provides substantially less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than a typical facility. Finally, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that just 3.8 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

This facility received an F for its inspection rating. You should pay close attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this poor of an inspection grade. We would pay close attention to the level of severity of those deficiencies. This particular nursing home had a category J or K deficiency, which rank among the worst deficiencies. These categories mean that inspectors identified a deficiency which puts resident safety or health in immediate jeopardy. Lastly, we also want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received large government fines totaling more than $100,000. This often indicates that a poor track record spanned several years.

The final area we analyzed was long-term care. This nursing home received a poor grade of F in that area. Long-term care grades in this range generally are a bad sign for the quantity and quality of care provided by nurses and aids, as well as the levels of routine medical care available. After assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination records. Frankly, we were a bit alarmed this facility vaccinated 74.65278 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is significantly less than average. Surprisingly, this place was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. This was its best score in this category.