Hunterdon Care Center

One of the reasons this proved to be a quality nursing home is it received a very impressive short-term care score. In fact, short-term care turned out to be its best category. In that category, we awarded this nursing home an A. Our short-term care ratings are likely more critical for residents in need of a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. This includes not merely nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this area is the percentage of patients that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 6.6 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

In addition, this facility also excelled in the area of inspections, where it received an A. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. These inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

In addition, this facility also received favorable nursing grades this year. In fact, we awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B. There are several factors included in this area. Many of these criteria reflect staffing levels. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 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 place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Moving on to the last area, we awarded this facility a D for the area of long-term care. This is the facility's weakest category grade. Nevertheless, you shouldn't focus exclusively a single bad score. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. After looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to learn that this nursing home vaccinated 99.25926 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.