Heritage House

One of the many reasons this ended up being a quality nursing home is that it earned an A+ inspection grade. This is just about as good as it gets in this area. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category usually have very few of these severe deficiencies. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were severe based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to this nursing home's list of strengths, it also received an excellent nursing grade. We awarded them an impressive grade of A- in this category. Our nursing grade is largely tied to the facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as having a system of turning a patient at least once a day.

We also awarded this facility a score of A- for our long-term care grade. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents, which is much higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The final area we looked at was nursing, is this facility's worst area. We awarded this nursing home a grade of D in this area. This really is one of just a few dings on an otherwise impressive profile. Short-term care ratings are vital for individuals needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally requires more skilled nursing services. This includes a broad spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the measures we assessed. The last item we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 3.1 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these subpar metrics sunk this nursing home's short-term care grade.