Langdon Place of Keene

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category usually have very few of these severe deficiencies. 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. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also received an A+ short-term care grade, making it one of the few nursing homes to be given several A+ category scores. In computing these short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The objective is to devise a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we looked at in this area is the number of patients who returned home from the nursing home. We found that 6.2 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

This nursing home also received a fine long-term care grade. In fact, this ended up being its third strongest category grade. In that category, we gave this facility a grade of A. When facilities receive a score in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. One of the datapoints we considered in addition to nursing hours was vaccines. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. This is a proven method to minimize unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for the nursing home population. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

The fourth category we scored is nursing, where this nursing home received a grade of A-. This topped off a very favorable profile. Few facilities received an A- or higher in each of our categories. There are many criteria within this area. Many of these data points are tied to nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed certain nursing quality-based metrics in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these areas as predictive indicators of the quality of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.