Heritage Hall North

In addition to performing well overall, this facility received even higher grades in our short-term care category. In fact, it earned one of our best grades in that area with A. Our short-term care scores are presumably most critical for patients in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates more skilled nursing. This means not only nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we looked at in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 6.9 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

This nursing home also excelled in inspections. We gave it an A- for that category. Our inspection ratings account for several factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this category tend to have very few severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B. In computing our nursing grades, we assess both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This facility provided 0.4 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 facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last category we assessed was long-term care. This facility was given a better than average long-term care rating this year, with a B-. Although this isn't quite as elite as many of its other category grades, this is nevertheless an acceptable grade in that area. In the category of long-term care, we focus on the quantity of services provided by a nursing home, as opposed to more medically-intensive services. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 96.93252 percent of its residents, which is higher than the average nursing home. Finally, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.