Heartland Health Care Center Boynton Beach

On top of being a first rate nursing home overall, this facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received an A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. The nursing score weighs several datapoints, however, the main one is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a resident at least once a day.

This facility also received an A+ inspection score, making it one of the rare places to receive multiple A+'s in our category grades. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing these inspection scores. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be quite insignificant. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in the industry.

The next category we looked at was long-term care. Contributing to its elite resume, this facility also performed well in that category. In fact, we awarded it a of A- in that category. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 99.745544 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients out of the hospital. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The fourth category we analyzed was short-term care, where this facility was awarded a B+. This rounded out a very favorable report card. Few facilities earned a B+ or better in each of our categories. In calculating these short-term care grades, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our purpose is to create a tool for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We found that 2.6 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.