Fitchburg Gardens for Nursing and Rehabilitation
94 Summer Street, Fitchburg MA 01420 · (978) 343-3530 · 69.08% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Fitchburg Gardens for Nursing and Rehabilitation is an average-sized nursing home located in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. We gave this facility a rock bottom overall rating based on the data we looked at. Fitchburg received a city grade of B-, so there are other options in the city worth looking at. Lastly, this facility had an ownership change in the last year. Hopefully, new ownership is able to elevate its quality standards.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 87 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we awarded it a B- for our inspections rating. In fact, the facility received very impressive inspection report this year. Our inspection scores weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.
Long-term Care Quality
This facility's next best category is long-term care, but it still earned a grade of just D in that area. This turns out to be a well below average score. Long-term care grades in this range generally are a bad sign for the quantity and quality of care provided by nurses and aids. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. We discovered that this nursing home vaccinated a relatively low 60.851063 percent of its residents, which is quite a bit lower than we expected. Unfortunately, this place's hospitalization rate was also disappointing. We found that this nursing home had 2.25 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an alarming rate.
Short-term Care Quality
Unfortunately, we gave this facility an F for its short-term care grade. Our short-term care scores are probably most critical for patients in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not just nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Based on its score in this area, we were not shocked to find that this place was well below average in terms of its quantity of registered nurse hours provided to its patients. Frankly, this was about what we expected here. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. This definitely was not a strength for this facility. We found that just 37.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, around half of their patients are able to return home so this is well below average.
Nurse Quality
Moving on to our final category, this nursing home really didn't perform well here either. With a very poor grade of F in nursing, this is really as terrible as it gets. When determining a nursing home's nursing score, we consider the amount of time nurses are seeing residents as well as the level of skill of those nurses. This nursing home provides 2.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. To go along with its low totals in the area of nursing hours per resident, this nursing home also didn't perform as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in calculating our nursing scores. We looked at the percentage of residents sustaining major falls and pressure ulcers. This nursing home had more falls and pressure ulcers than the average nursing home. This could be a bad sign when you consider that many bed sores and falls are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. Unfortunately, these statistics hurt this nursing home's nursing grade quite a bit.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Fitchburg Gardens for Nursing and Rehabilitation Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of residents that sustained a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage resulting from remaining in one position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percentage of patients that sustained a major fall. Falls leading to severe injury are often caused by poor nursing care. Better nursing protocols reduces the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of residents that sustained a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered by many experts to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are routinely linked to worse hygiene protocols. Nevertheless, this datapoint may be misleading for certain facilities due to different reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. These drugs are sometimes used to treat a variety of medical conditions, including dementia.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percentage of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. Antianxiety drugs are prescribed to residents experiencing anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percent of residents demonstrating depressive symptoms. Increased levels of depression may be an indicator worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percentage of residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percentage of residents that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
Measures the percent of long-term stay patients that retained mobility levels. Many in the industry believe that the ability to move around is vital to residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is 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 is a measure of the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. There is typically a correlation between fewer emergency room visits and the overall quality of short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is the percentage of short-term stay residents that experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Higher levels of autonomy with activities of daily living generally correlates with superior rehabilitation.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better