Harris Hill Center, Genesis Healthcare

Harris Hill Center, Genesis Healthcare is an average-sized nursing home in Concord, New Hampshire. With an overall grade of B+, this nursing home ended up being one of the 50 best nursing homes in New Hampshire. Based on our assessment, this place ought to meet the needs of most people. The best aspect of this facility's impressive report card is its inspection rating. Inspection reports are discussed in the next paragraph

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher grades in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the inspectors did not 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 received impressive scores in the area of long-term care as well. Consequently, we gave it one of our best grades in that category with a score of A-. When facilities receive this kind of grade in long-term care it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the place is well-staffed with nurses and aids. After looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. This nursing home also keeps its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 1.28 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a much lower hospitalization rate than the majority of nursing homes.

The third category we analyzed is short-term care. This facility received a very positive short-term care score, with a B+ in this area. In calculating our short-term care ratings, we scrutinize a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other licensed professionals. This area is more often than not a reliable measure of the facility's rehabilitation services. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. Lastly, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home, which as an area this facility performed much more favorably. It outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes in the country with 62.1 percent of its patients returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most facilities.

The final area we analyzed was nursing, in which this nursing home was awarded a B-. This actually turned out to be this facility's least impressive category. This is still not a terrible score. There are several criteria within this area. Many of these criteria are tied to nurse staffing. This facility provided 3.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in some quality-focused statistics. Specifically, we look at the percent of residents who sustained pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these data points as reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care, since better care tends to reduce these problems.