Harbor Hill Center
2 Footbridge Rd, Belfast ME 04915 · (207) 338-5307 · 88.5% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Harbor Hill Center is one of just two nursing homes in Belfast, Maine. We awarded this nursing home an A- overall grade, ranking it in the top third of all facilities in the country. This is really as good of a nursing home as you'll find. This nursing home's impressive profile was highlighted by its short-term care grade, which we will address in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 40 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
In addition to faring well overall, this facility received high marks in the area of short-term care as well. As a result, it received our highest grade in that category with an A+. Our short-term care grades are based in part on the facility's quantity of skilled nursing services. This means a vast range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other variations of therapy. This nursing home provided more physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most facilities. This is what we like to find when assessing a nursing home in this category. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. This nursing home was better than average in this metric with 55.8 percent of its patients able to return home.
Facility Inspections
Adding to its impressive category scores, this nursing home also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some are relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This means the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in the industry.
Nurse Quality
To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. When calculating our nursing grades, we analyze both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This nursing home provides an incredible 5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Out of that total, many of the hours were provided by registered nurses, which is one of the most highly trained levels of nurses. On top of looking at levels of nursing care, we also looked at a few quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these metrics as predictive measures of the quality of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we scored is long-term care. We awarded this nursing home a decent score in this category, with a C. Although this wasn't as favorable as many of this nursing home's other scores, it is nevertheless not a bad grade. For patients in need of a permanent place to live rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. After considering the impressive nursing care provided by this facility, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is higher than many nursing homes. This combination proved to be successful as this nursing home keeps its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 1.1 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a significantly better hospitalization rate than the average nursing home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Harbor Hill Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can minimize 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 tells you the percentage of long-term residents that had a fall which caused major injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing scores.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term stay patients that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's could be an indicator of lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this statistic could also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications may be vital to many residents, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term patients taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of patients who are demonstrating signs of depression. High rates of depression could imply worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for seniors, making these vaccines important for resident well-being.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and bathing. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients that retained mobility levels. Some experts would argue that mobility is vital to residents' mental and physical well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are hospitalized 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 times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term resident care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding emergency medical situations is one way to gauge short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better