The Middletown Home

We want to point out that this facility outperformed its overall score in the category of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with an A-. Inspection ratings take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of B in the category of nursing. Nursing scores are mostly tied to a facility's level of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

We also gave this nursing home a solid score in the category of short-term care, where it received a grade of C. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This area is considered to be a reliable assessment of a facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. We found that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. It supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. It is important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. The final measure we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to return home from the facility. We found that just 4.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

The next category we analyzed is long-term care, which turned out to be a low point for this facility. We awarded this nursing home a D in the area of long-term care. Long-term care grades of this caliber 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. Once we finished looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. We were a bit bothered by the fact that this nursing home vaccinated a relatively low 65.28663 percent of its patients against pneumonia. To our surprise, this place was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. This is its best score in this category.