Harston Hall

On top of performing well in its overall grade, this nursing home performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these can be quite insignificant. This facility received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent threat to resident safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

Adding to its strong performance in other areas, we gave this facility an B+ for nursing. Nursing ratings are mostly based on the facility's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 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 facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can many times be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home also was awarded a strong long-term care grade. Indeed, we gave it an above average score of B in this category. For residents looking for a permanent residence as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are a key measure. On top of considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 75.39432 percent of its residents. This is somewhat less than we were hoping for. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0.04 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Our last area is short-term care, in which we awarded this nursing home a C in this category. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other licensed professionals. This category is more often than not a reliable assessment of the nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.1 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.