Harts Harbor Health Care Center

We would like to point out that this nursing home's inspection score exceeded its overall grade. This facility earned a B+ in this area, which is a quality score. Inspection scores weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category typically have very few severe deficiencies. This facility received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate risk to resident safety or health. A few minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facilities next most favorable area was short-term care. We gave it a B- in this area. This is basically a middle of the road grade in this area. In forming our short-term care scores, we look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our goal is to create a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its level of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its patients based on the metrics we assessed. The last statistic we considered in this area is the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

This nursing home's third highest category was long-term care. In that category, we awarded this facility a B-. Our long-term care ratings are more meaningful for residents requiring more conventional assistance related to activities of daily living. After looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 99.802376 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next category we rated is nursing. We gave it a grade of C in that category. This is basically a middle of the road grade in this category. We scrutinized the qualifications of nurses at the nursing home, as well as the number of hours the nurses were with residents, in determining our grade in this category. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, which is well below average. Finally, nursing grades also consider quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is generally an indicator that a facility has sufficient quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a facility provides enough nurses aids to assist its residents.