Life Care Center of Wilbraham
2399 Boston Road, Wilbraham MA 01095 · (413) 596-3111 · 93% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Life Care Center of Wilbraham is one of just a couple available nursing homes located in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. This facility appears to be ranked among the better facilities we looked at. A grade in this range requires very strong marks across the board. In fact, we ranked this facility in the top third of all facilities in the United States. This nursing home's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection score, which you can find in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 123 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Partnership
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Facilities with better scores in this area typically dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This facility received 7 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of these deficiencies an immediate risk to patient safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.
Short-term Care Quality
Contributing to its strong resume, this nursing home also was awarded a superb short-term care score, with a score of A. Our short-term care grades are probably most critical for individuals requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates more skilled nursing services. This includes not merely nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. This place provided more physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most facilities. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Massachusetts in this area with 63.9 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, at most facilities, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Nurse Quality
Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. Nursing ratings are based largely on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these areas as reliable measures of the quality of nursing care being provided, since better care tends to reduce these problems.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we analyzed was long-term care, where this facility received a grade of B-. Even though this ended up being its weakest category score, this is nevertheless not a terrible score. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary goal is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 99.433426 percent of its residents. This facility also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had just 1.54 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Life Care Center of Wilbraham Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percent of patients who suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are damage to the skin due to remaining in the same position for too long.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of patients that have had a major fall. Falls leading to serious injuries are often caused by lower quality nursing care. Closer supervision limits the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of residents who suffered from a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a barometer of nursing care . UTI's are often the result of a facility with lower levels of hygiene. Nevertheless, this datapoint could also be skewed for certain nursing homes due to different reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This measures the percentage of long-term patients that are given antipsychotic medication. Excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents in scenarios where such drugs aren't medically required. However, some facilities may need to rely more on these medications due to having more residents suffering from dementia.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients taking antianxiety drugs.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
Measures the percent of long-term care patients demonstrating signs of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of patients that received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
Measures the percentage of long-term care residents who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and continence.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care patients that retained mobility levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric is a measure of the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding medical emergencies is one way to assess patient well-being during rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percent of short-term residents that experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better