Epsom Healthcare Center

In addition to performing well overall, this nursing home also received nearly flawless government inspections. Consequently, it earned one of our highest grades in that category with an A+. Our inspection grades are tied to many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. While this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This means that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also was given an A+ long-term care grade, making it one of the few nursing homes to be awarded multiple A+ category scores. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in long-term care it is a good sign for patient care and suggests that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is far higher than most nursing homes. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. When computing our nursing grades, we weigh both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at 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 nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a resident more often.

In the final category, we gave this facility an A+ for its short-term care score. This topped off a very strong profile. In the category of short-term care, we seek to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 5.8 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.