Heritage Health-Mount Sterling

This nursing home earned an inspection score which is stronger than its overall score. Inspection grades are associated with the facility's recent inspections. We awarded this nursing home an above average grade of B+ in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing these inspection scores. One key factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be quite minor. This nursing home was hit with 7 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies to be an immediate threat to resident health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies shouldn't stop you from considering a nursing home.

This nursing home's nursing grade appears to be one of its better features. The facility received a grade of B- in this category. Nursing scores are largely tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. This place provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is a somewhat concerning figure as it is well below average. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures. While this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it did remarkably well in this metric. This can be a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a policy of moving residents more frequently.

The next category we analyzed was short-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a B- in this area. Our short-term care scores are considered to be more meaningful for folks in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. This includes not merely nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this facility provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. The last datapoint we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 5 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.

The next area we assessed was long-term care, ended up being this facility's weakest category. We awarded this facility a grade of D in that area. Facilities that don't fare well in this category typically aren't as well-staffed and are lagging in some of the areas of routine medical care we looked at. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 92.253525 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which happens to be a bit less than we anticipated but still a decent percentage. Surprisingly, this place was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. This was its best score in this category.