Heritage Health-Elgin

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility has received near flawless health inspections recently. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Inspection scores are based on several pieces of information located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that receive favorable grades in this category have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these facilities generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. While this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To add to its first-rate assessments in other areas, we gave this nursing home a score of A- for its short-term care score. Our short-term care scores are considered to be most important for patients requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final metric we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The next category we assessed is long-term care. This nursing home was awarded an above average long-term care grade, with a grade of B+ in this category. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly can be a dangerous health condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home doesn't leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The final area we rated proved to be this facility's worst category. Nevertheless, even its weakest link would likely be a strength for many facilities. In fact, we gave it a favorable grade of B for nursing. There are several criteria within this area. Many of these data points reflect nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 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 typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.