Highland House

Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we awarded it a grade of C for our inspections rating. In fact, the facility received very impressive inspection report this year. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. This facility was hit with 4 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but none were in categories G through L. This indicates the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent danger to patient health or safety. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.

We were also surprised to find that this facility received a reasonably solid short-term care rating in our assessment. We gave it a grade of C in that category. In forming these short-term care scores, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. Unfortunately, we found that this place provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other facilities. The key is determining what bearing this had on the quality of care. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 5.1 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was actually quite a bit below the national average.

This facility's next best category was nursing, but even there it received a grade of just D. This is still a well below average grade. In computing a facility's nursing score, we weigh the number of hours nurses are with residents and the level of skill of the nurses. This particular facility offered just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This number is far below the national average. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing ratings. This place fared well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.

Switching gears to the next area, this nursing home didn't perform very well in this category either. With a very poor grade of F in long-term care, this is really as terrible as it gets. For patients seeking a permanent residence as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 96.410255 percent of its patients, which is better than the vast majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.