Hearts & Hands, Post Acute Care & Rehab Center
2990 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz CA 95062 · (831) 479-9000 · 77.08% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Hearts & Hands, Post Acute Care & Rehab Center is a large nursing home located in Santa Cruz, California. With an overall rating of D, this is a relatively poor nursing home. If you are not satisfied with this facility's low overall grade, you may find you have slim pickings in Santa Cruz. The city has just two other nursing homes. Despite all this, one of the few highlights of this facility's report card is its impressive inspection score. You can scroll down to learn more about inspections and other category scores
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 144 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Individual
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
Although we were not high on this place's overall performance, it actually received an impressive inspection report this year with few dings from the applicable government inspectors. As a result, it received one of our better grades in that area with a B+. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. It is generally best to avoid nursing homes that have too many deficiencies. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.
Nurse Quality
We also gave this facility a strong grade in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B. This is better than most nursing homes in this category. Nursing scores are mostly based on the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 3.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home's second worse category is short-term care, where it earned just a D in that area. This is a well below average grade. Our short-term care grades are based in part on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a broad spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, in addition to other forms of therapy. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The last metric we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents that returned home from the nursing home. This facility struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 34.6 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, this was well below the national average.
Long-term Care Quality
Turning to the fourth area, this nursing home didn't perform very well in this category either. With a very poor grade of F in long-term care, this is just about as bad as it gets. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally are a bad sign for the quantity and quality of care provided by nurses and aids, as well as the levels of routine medical care available. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 78.75895 percent of its patients. This is several points below the national average. To our surprise, this place actually fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had just 1.04 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. This is its best score in this category.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Hearts & Hands, Post Acute Care & Rehab Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic indicates the percent of long-term care patients who are suffering from new or worsened pressure ulcers or bed sores. We factor in this statistic in computing both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint is an indication of the percentage of long-term care patients who have had falls resulting in severe injury. Falls can happen for a variety of reasons, but high rates of major falls may be an indication of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percentage of patients that have had a urinary tract infection. These infections are sometimes associated with poorer hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of residents given antipsychotic drugs. These drugs may be used to treat a variety of medical conditions, including Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percent of patients who were given antianxiety medications. These medications are prescribed to patients suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This indicates the percentage of residents demonstrating signs of depression. Increased levels of depression may reveal lower quality care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percentage of residents that were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be standard at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percent of long-term care patients that required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and eating. Many believe that this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of residents that retained mobility levels over time. Retaining mobility is often a good sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care. There is generally a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and the quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This indicates the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term patient care. There is a correlation between staying out of the hospital and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. There is usually a correlation between having fewer emergency room visits and the quality of care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percentage of short-term residents who saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry argue this is a reasonable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better