Harbor's Edge

On top of faring well in its overall grade, this facility received high marks in our short-term care rating as well. It received our highest score in that category with an A+. In the area of short-term care, we seek to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 6.5 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

In addition, this facility also earned a nearly flawless government inspection report. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with a score of A. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. While this place had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. The nursing grade features several datapoints. The most heavily weighted factor is the number of hours nurses spend with patients. This facility provided 0.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place 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 frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final area we assessed is long-term care, where this facility was given an A. This topped off a very impressive report card. Very few facilities earned an A- or better in every category. For residents in need of a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care grades are a key measure. In addition to assessing the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 85.71429 percent of its patients. This is somewhat less than we expected but still a reasonably acceptable figure. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.