Health Central Park

Although we did not rate this facility well overall, we want to point out its decent grade of B- in the category of nursing. In computing a nursing home's nursing grade, we look at the quantity of hours nurses are with patients as well as the level of skill of those nurses. This facility provided just 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, while this place got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it actually excelled in some of our quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this area.

This facility received its second highest category grade in the area of short-term care. We gave this nursing home a grade of B- in this area, which is an acceptable grade. In calculating these short-term care ratings, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The objective is to formulate a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The tricky part is determining what bearing this had on quality of care. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents that eventually returned home from the facility. We found that just 3.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. This figure was below average.

We also awarded this facility a middle of the road score in the category of long-term care, with a grade of B-. Long-term care grades are typically used to score a facility's performance as a traditional convalescent home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services offered by a rehabilitation facility. After considering the volume of care provided by nurses, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. We were optimistic to find that this facility vaccinates 98.50299 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Turning the last category of inspections, this ended up being this nursing home's weakest link. Inspection grades are based on a facility's recent government inspection reports. We gave this nursing home just a D in this category, which is a very poor grade. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating our inspection ratings. One critical factor is health deficiencies. We would pay close attention to the level of severity of the deficiencies. This nursing home had a deficiency by government inspectors. We were relieved to find that it was not in a category that suggests that it posed a threat to resident health or safety. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.