Heritage House of New Castle

This nursing home received a quality overall score as described above, but we especially would like to point out its excellent inspections in recent years. We awarded it an A+ in this category. Inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This facility was hit with 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe. This means that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among this facility's other strengths is its elite long-term care grade. We awarded them one of our better grades in that category, with a score of A-. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is very impressive. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly health condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a facility doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This nursing home received its next best category grade in the category of short-term care. We awarded this facility a grade of B- in this category, which is a reasonably acceptable grade. Our short-term care ratings are likely more meaningful for those needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not only nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the percentage of patients that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. We found that 5.6 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below the national average.

The last area we assessed is nursing. We awarded this facility a D for the area of nursing, making this its weakest grade. Our nursing score is based on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of skill of the nurses as well as the number of hours spent with residents. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing scores. This place performed well in the area of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. Many consider these statistics to be good measures of the quality of nursing care.