Degraff Memorial Hospital-Skilled Nursing Facility
445 Tremont Street, North Tonawanda NY 14120 · (716) 690-2080 · 97.25% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
With an address in North Tonawanda, New York, Degraff Memorial Hospital-Skilled Nursing Facility is one of a mere two available nursing homes in this area. This facility was awarded an A- overall, which is among the top grades that we offer. A grade in this range requires top-notch scores across the board. We also want to point out that this nursing home is based in a hospital. Typically, this indicates that more intensive healthcare services are offered. This facility's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection rating, which we will address in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 80 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of being a first rate nursing home overall, this facility also excelled in our inspections category, where it received an A+. Few facilities fared this well in this category. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can find more information about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe. This tells you that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to cause an imminent risk to resident health or safety. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in the industry.
Short-term Care Quality
Contributing to its top-shelf assessment, this nursing home also was given an excellent short-term care score, with a grade of A. With our short-term care grade, we attempt to create a meaningful measure for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at a facility's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Remarkably, this facility provides about one and a half times as many hours of services from physical therapists and registered nurses than most facilities we looked at. This is an encouraging sign. The last measure we assessed in this category is the number of residents that who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that it performed as well as just about any nursing home in New York in this area with 58.5 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Nurse Quality
Another strong feature for this facility is that it received an impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B+. Our nursing score is based on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We consider both the levels of licensure of those nurses as well as the amount of time spent with residents. This particular nursing home provided 4.2 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This was one of the highest figures we found. In addition, a significant portion of this care was provided by registered nurses, which are highly skilled nurses. These are both really impressive figures. On top of offering high levels of nursing care, this nursing home also fared well in several of the quality measures we looked at. By way of illustration, in terms of the percentage of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this place performed better than the national average. This is often an indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented with better nursing care and having a policy of regularly moving patients to prevent bed sores.
Long-term Care Quality
The last category we scored is long-term care. This facility was awarded a favorable long-term care grade this year, with a B-. Although this is not as elite as several of its other category grades, this is nevertheless an acceptable grade for this area. Our long-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of nursing care. This means a vast range of personal care services, ranging from assistance with activities of daily living to routine medical services. After looking at the impressive nursing hours and other staffing provided by this nursing home, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 99.59677 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which appears to be higher than most nursing homes. This combination proved to be effective as this facility keeps its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Degraff Memorial Hospital-Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percent of patients who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also called bed sores, are often caused by patients not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing care can limit the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents that suffered from a fall which caused serious injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term residents who suffered from a urinary tract infection. Although a higher rate of these infections could reflect poorly on a nursing home's nursing care, it can be problematic to compare different facilities due to nursing homes having reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients given antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic medications are prescribed to patients for many conditions, including dementia. Tragically, in limited cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percent of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. Antianxiety medications are given to patients experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care residents who are exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percentage of residents that received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is the percent of residents that required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term stay patients who maintained mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This indicates the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term resident care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. There is typically a correlation between staying out of the emergency room and the overall quality of short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percent of short-term stay residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Higher levels of independence with ADL's often correlates with better rehabilitation.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better