Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley: Nursing Home OverviewSkip to content

Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley

  • Nursing Home
  • Memory Care

Updated Nov 1, 2023 by Nick Reese

Historical Rating
Grade: A
Oct 18: B+Nov 18: A-Dec 18: A-Jan 19: A-Feb 19: A-May 19: AJun 19: AJul 19: A-Aug 19: A-Sep 19: A-Jan 20: B+Mar 20: BApr 20: B-May 20: B-Jun 20: B-Jul 20: B-Aug 20: B-Sep 20: B-Oct 20: BNov 20: B-Jan 21: B+Feb 21: BMar 21: B+Apr 21: BMay 21: BJun 21: BJul 21: BAug 21: BSep 21: BOct 21: B-Nov 21: BJan 22: B-Feb 22: BMar 22: BApr 22: BMay 22: B-Jun 22: B-Aug 22: B+Sep 22: B+Oct 22: B+Nov 22: B+Jan 23: A-Feb 23: B+Mar 23: A-Apr 23: A-Jun 23: A-Jul 23: A-Aug 23: A-Sep 23: A-Oct 23: ANov 23: A
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Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley's website

80 Boston Road,
North Billerica MA 01862

(978) 667-2166

83.06% estimated occupancy 1

Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley is in North Billerica, Massachusetts, a city with a population of 10,227 people. Featuring an overall score of A, this facility is ranked among the best facilities we found. We flat out can't say enough good things about this facility. Finally, this appears to be a very consistent nursing home with consistent ratings in all of the major categories. Additional information about its category grades can be found below.

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Quick Details

  • Accepts Medicare 1
  • Accepts Medicaid 1
  • No CCRC
  • Has Resident Council
  • No Family Council
  • For profit - Limited Liability company
  • Offers Post-Acute Care 
  • Offers Inpatient Rehab

Specialized Services

  • Personal Care
  • Medication Management
  • Home Making
  • Transportation
  • Speech Therapy
  • IV Antibiotic Therapy
  • Wound Care
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Diabetes Management
  • Physical Therapy
  • Respiratory Therapy
  • Nutritional Counseling
  • Recreational Therapy

Registered Staff Hours

Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2022)
Less:
More:
July
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January
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February
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Nurse Quality

Grade: A

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. Nursing grades are heavily correlated with levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Short-term Care Quality

Grade: A-minus

Adding to its elite achievements in other areas, we awarded this facility a grade of A- for its short-term care score. Our short-term care grades are meaningful for residents requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires more skilled nursing services. This means a broad scope of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 5.2 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

Facility Inspections

Grade: A-minus

Tallying yet another strong category grade, this facility also excelled in inspections, where it earned a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Perhaps the most critical factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. A deficiency-free inspection report is what we look for.

Long-term Care Quality

Grade: A-minus

In our final area, this facility also received a very strong long-term care score, with a grade of A-. This wrapped up a very strong profile. When facilities receive a score in this range in this category it typically means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. In addition to considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 96.0452 percent of its patients, which is higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Rating Over Time

Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.

FDCB-BB+A-AA+Oct 18Dec 23

Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley Quality Metrics

Minimizes Pressure Ulcers

Grade: A

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 3.24% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers

This tells you the percent of patients that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage resulting from staying in one position for too long.

Minimizes Serious Falls

Grade: B

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 3.39% of Patients had Serious Falls

This indicates the percentage of residents that sustained a fall which caused major injury.

Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections

Grade: A

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 0.31% of Patients had UTIs

This datapoint tells you the percent of long-term residents who have sustained a urinary tract infection. While a higher rate of these infections may reflect poorly on a facility's cleanliness, it is difficult to compare between nursing homes due to nursing homes having differing reporting standards.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication

Grade: B-minus

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 17.91% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication

This statistic measures the percentage of long-term residents who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. Increased usage of these drugs may indicate a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior in scenarios where such drugs aren't medically indicated. Nevertheless, some nursing homes need to rely on these medications due to an increased number of residents suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementias.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication

Grade: B

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 18.82% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication

This tells you the percent of patients given antianxiety drugs. Antianxiety drugs are administered to residents experiencing depression or anxiety.

Managing Depression Among Residents

Grade: A-minus

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 0.68% of Patients

This is the percent of residents who are showing depressive symptoms. High levels of depression could be an indicator worse patient care.

Appropriate Vaccine Usage

Grade: B-plus

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 98.02% of Patients

This indicates the percent of residents who have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be standard at this point.

Residents Maintain Autonomy

Grade: C

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 19.06% of Patients

Measures the percent of long-term stay residents that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as taking medications and bathing.

Ability to Keep Residents Mobile

Grade: D

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 8.64% of Residents

This is a measure of the percent of long-term care patients who remained mobile levels.

Hospitalizations

Grade: B

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 0.01 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days

This indicates the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. There is typically a correlation between staying out of the hospital and the quality of care.

Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations

Grade: A

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 8.64% of Residents Rehospitalized

This is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care.

Short-term Care: ER Visits

Grade: B

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 11.16% of Patients

This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care.

Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement

Grade: A

In Life Care Center of Merrimack Valley, 90.85% of Resident

This indicates the percentage of short-term patients that experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living.

Nearby Hospitals

  • Lowell General HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 4.31 miles away295 Varnum Avenue Lowell Massachusetts 01854Voluntary non-profit - Private(978) 937-6000
  • Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, BurlingtonAcute Care Hospitals 8.69 miles away41 & 45 Mall Road Burlington Massachusetts 01803Voluntary non-profit - Private(781) 744-5100
  • Emerson Hospital -Acute Care Hospitals 10.69 miles away133 Old Road to 9 Acre Corner Concord Massachusetts 01742Voluntary non-profit - Private(978) 369-1400
  • Holy Family HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 11.39 miles away70 East Street Methuen Massachusetts 01844Proprietary(978) 687-0156
  • Winchester HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 12.44 miles away41 Highland Avenue Winchester Massachusetts 01890Voluntary non-profit - Private(781) 729-9000
  • Nashoba Valley Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 13.91 miles away200 Groton Road Ayer Massachusetts 01432Proprietary(978) 784-9000
  • Southern Nh Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 13.96 miles away8 Prospect Street Nashua New Hampshire 03060Voluntary non-profit - Private(603) 577-2000
  • St Joseph HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 14.21 miles away172 Kinsley St Nashua New Hampshire 03060Voluntary non-profit - Other(603) 882-3000

Nearby Dialysis

  • Fresenius Medical Care Chelmsford1.67 miles away27 Industrial Ave Chelmsford Massachusetts 01824Dialysis Stations: 16 (978) 250-0981
  • Fresenius Medical Care of Lowell2.78 miles away847 Rogers Street Suite 101 Lowell Massachusetts 01852CMS Rating: 2 stars Dialysis Stations: 35 (978) 441-5100
  • Davita Burlington Regional Dialysis7.94 miles away31 Mall Road-Dialysis Suite 1b Burlington Massachusetts 01803CMS Rating: 4 stars Dialysis Stations: 17 (781) 270-3580
  • Dci Walden Pond10.65 miles away56 B Winthrop Street Concord Massachusetts 01742Dialysis Stations: 13 (978) 369-1683
  • Davita Woburn Dialysis10.77 miles away23 Warren Avenue Woburn Massachusetts 01801Dialysis Stations: 17 (781) 935-7700
  • Davita North Andover Renal at Home11.59 miles away201 Sutton Street North Andover Massachusetts 01845CMS Rating: 5 stars Dialysis Stations: 19 (978) 975-1119
  • Fmc Services of Stoneham11.66 miles away2 Main Street Suite 100 Stoneham Massachusetts 02180CMS Rating: 4 stars Dialysis Stations: 24 (781) 279-2454
  • Fresenius Medical Care Merrimack Valley12.7 miles away100 Milk Street Methuen Massachusetts 01844CMS Rating: 5 stars Dialysis Stations: 19 (978) 686-9900

Helpful Articles

Footnotes:

  1. https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/profile.html#ID=225546