Hamden Rehabilitation & Health Care Center

In addition to receiving a strong overall score, this facility also received an elite short-term care grade. We gave them one of our better scores in that area, with an A. Our short-term care ratings are likely most important for individuals in need of a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates more highly-skilled nursing services. This means not just nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 6.9 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

This facility also excelled in the area of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that category, which is one of our highest grades. This is one of the few facilities with an overall grade in this range which earned multiple category grades this high. Inspection scores account for several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area generally have few of these severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

In addition, this facility also received favorable nursing grades this year. In fact, we awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. Nursing grades are tied to quality and quantity of nursing care. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Switching gears to our last category, this nursing home was given a high-end long-term care rating. This nursing home did not prove to have any weaknesses. In a long-term care environment, the primary goal is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 65.14286 percent of its patients. This is a few points below what we anticipated but still a decent percentage. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we hoped for, we were pleased to find facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.