Heartland of Willoughby

It should also be noted that this facility's nursing score outpaced its overall grade. We gave it a B for its nursing score. When determining a facility's nursing rating, we weigh the quantity of hours nurses are caring for patients as well as the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This facility's inspection score exceeded its overall score as well. We gave them one of our better grades in that category, with a B. This is a notably better score than its overall grade. Perhaps the most important factor we consider in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with better grades in this area typically avoided the most severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. This nursing home was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This indicates that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate threat to patient safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home was given its third best category grade in the category of short-term care. We awarded this nursing home a B- in this category, which is a respectable grade. In the category of short-term care, we seek to evaluate measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. We were surprised to find that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. In fact, it supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.9 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.

The next area we assessed was long-term care, which was this facility's least impressive area. We gave this facility a D in that category. If you are seeking anything other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care grades. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 99.65636 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than most nursing homes. Surprisingly, this nursing home also keeps its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.