Heritage Square

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection scores. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite minor. While this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't 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.

In addition, this facility was given high marks in the area of long-term care. As a result, it received one of our highest scores in that area with a score of A+. Long-term care ratings in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a great way to minimize negative health outcomes for the elderly population. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

In addition, this facility received high marks in the area of nursing. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. Nursing ratings are mostly tied to the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The fourth category we graded was short-term care, where this facility was awarded a grade of A-. This finished off an elite report card. Very few nursing homes received an A- or higher in every category. Our short-term care grades are presumably most critical for residents needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not just nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.