Merrimack Valley Health Center: Nursing Home OverviewSkip to content

Merrimack Valley Health Center

  • Nursing Home

Updated Nov 1, 2023 by Nick Lata

Historical Rating
Grade: F
Oct 18: B-Nov 18: B-Dec 18: B-Jan 19: B+Feb 19: B+May 19: CJun 19: CJul 19: CAug 19: B-Sep 19: B-Jan 20: B-Mar 20: B-Apr 20: B-May 20: BJun 20: BJul 20: B-Aug 20: B-Sep 20: B-Oct 20: CNov 20: DJan 21: DFeb 21: DMar 21: CApr 21: DMay 21: DJun 21: DJul 21: CAug 21: CSep 21: DOct 21: DNov 21: DJan 22: FFeb 22: FMar 22: FApr 22: FMay 22: FJun 22: FAug 22: FSep 22: FOct 22: DNov 22: DJan 23: FFeb 23: FMar 23: FApr 23: DJun 23: FJul 23: FAug 23: FSep 23: FOct 23: FNov 23: F
See Rating Overview

22 Maple Street,
Amesbury MA 01913

(978) 388-4682

67.69% estimated occupancy 1

Note: Merrimack Valley Health Center has been flagged for abuse in the past 12 months. We have capped this facility's overall grade accordingly.

Merrimack Valley Health Center is a large facility located in Amesbury, Massachusetts. With a terrible overall grade of F, this nursing home didn't fare well in our assessment. This facility did not have much going for it. More information on this facility's category grades may be found below. Its best category was nursing, which is discussed in the next section.

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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 Inpatient Rehab
  • Offers Outpatient Rehab

Registered Staff Hours

Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2022)
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Nurse Quality

Grade: B-minus

While we gave this facility a terrible overall score, we gave it a B- for our nursing category. Our nursing score weighs a number of factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the amount of time nurses spend with patients. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home surprisingly fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It performed well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.

Long-term Care Quality

Grade: C

Remarkably, we gave this nursing home a C for its long-term care grade, which really isn't a bad grade. For long-term care residents, the primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. After assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination statistics. Unfortunately, this facility vaccinated only 58.00712 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Nevertheless, this nursing home was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Facility Inspections

Grade: F

We also wanted to draw your attention to this facility's inspection grade where it received an F. For facilities that received this bad of an inspection rating, we would scrutinize the severe deficiencies on its inspection report. This particular facility had 5 deficiencies by government inspectors. The only positive thing we can say is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate that they posed a threat to resident safety or health. Finally, CMS flagged this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. This is not what you want to see. We advise you to direct your search elsewhere.

Short-term Care Quality

Grade: F

Turning to the fourth category, this nursing home really did not perform well here either. With a bottom of the barrel grade of F in short-term care, this is just about as terrible as it gets. In determining our short-term care ratings, we scrutinize the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other types of therapists. This score is more often than not a useful measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return home from this facility. This nursing home didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 3.5 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Rating Over Time

Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.

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

Merrimack Valley Health Center Quality Metrics

Minimizes Pressure Ulcers

Grade: A-plus

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 1.39% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers

This statistic tells you the percentage of long-term patients that have new or worsened pressure ulcers . We bake this statistic into both nursing and long-term care grades.

Minimizes Serious Falls

Grade: B-minus

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 3.56% of Patients had Serious Falls

This tells you the percentage of residents who have had a fall resulting in severe injury.

Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections

Grade: C

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 2.92% of Patients had UTIs

This indicates the percentage of residents that have had a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are often associated with facilities with lower levels of hygiene. Better hygiene protocols limits the number of UTI's sustained by residents in a nursing home. Keep in mind that this metric is affected by by the fact that nursing homes have incongruent reporting standards for urinary tract infections.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication

Grade: F

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 42.48% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication

This indicates the percentage of patients prescribed antipsychotic medications. These medications may be used for a variety of medical conditions, such as dementia.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication

Grade: C

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 23.5% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication

This datapoint tells you the percent of long-term care residents receiving antianxiety medications.

Managing Depression Among Residents

Grade: B-plus

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 2.31% of Patients

This datapoint measures the percent of long-term residents showing symptoms of depression. Many in the industry believe this is a measure of quality of life.

Appropriate Vaccine Usage

Grade: F

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 70.4% of Patients

This tells you the percentage of patients who received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.

Residents Maintain Autonomy

Grade: B-plus

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 13.42% of Patients

This is a measure of the percent of long-term patients who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as taking medications and continence. Many in the industry would argue this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.

Ability to Keep Residents Mobile

Grade: B

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 15.4% of Residents

This indicates the percent of patients who retained mobility levels over time. Retaining mobility is often a good sign for residents' health.

Hospitalizations

Grade: B-plus

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 0.01 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days

This metric measures the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care. Staying out of the hospital is critical to the physical well-being of residents.

Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations

Grade: B

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 15.4% of Residents Rehospitalized

This indicates the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term care.

Short-term Care: ER Visits

Grade: B

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 11.04% of Patients

This datapoint measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care. Avoiding medical emergencies is one way to assess short-term care.

Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement

Grade: B

In Merrimack Valley Health Center, 77.55% of Resident

This is a measure of the percentage of short-term patients that experienced functional improvements.

Nearby Hospitals

  • Anna Jaques HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 3.95 miles away25 Highland Avenue Newburyport Massachusetts 01950Voluntary non-profit - Private(978) 463-1000
  • Exeter Hospital IncAcute Care Hospitals 8.85 miles away5 Alumni Drive Exeter New Hampshire 03833Voluntary non-profit - Private(603) 778-7311
  • Holy Family HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 14.74 miles away70 East Street Methuen Massachusetts 01844Proprietary(978) 687-0156
  • Portsmouth Regional HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 16.55 miles away333 Borthwick Ave Portsmouth New Hampshire 03801Proprietary(603) 436-5110
  • Parkland Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 18.75 miles away1 Parkland Drive Derry New Hampshire 03038Proprietary(603) 421-2100

Nearby Dialysis

  • Fmc of Newburyport4.11 miles away260 Merrimac Street Towle Building Newburyport Massachusetts 01950CMS Rating: 4 stars Dialysis Stations: 13 (978) 465-7030
  • Fmc Dialysis Services of Exeter8.47 miles away1 Hampton Road, Suite 109 Exeter New Hampshire 03833Dialysis Stations: 13 (603) 777-9931
  • Fresenius Medical Care of Methuen12.09 miles away421 Merrimack Street Methuen Massachusetts 01844Dialysis Stations: 21 (978) 975-3117
  • Fresenius Medical Care Merrimack Valley13.5 miles away100 Milk Street Methuen Massachusetts 01844CMS Rating: 5 stars Dialysis Stations: 19 (978) 686-9900
  • Davita North Andover Renal at Home14.3 miles away201 Sutton Street North Andover Massachusetts 01845CMS Rating: 5 stars Dialysis Stations: 19 (978) 975-1119
  • Seacoast Dialysis Center16.28 miles away155 Borthwick Ave Suite 100 Portsmouth New Hampshire 03801Dialysis Stations: 18 (603) 436-4567
  • Bio-Medical Applications of New Hampshire Inc16.37 miles away19 Keewadin Drive Suite 1 Salem New Hampshire 03079Dialysis Stations: 1 (603) 870-0969
  • Versailles Dialysis LLC16.41 miles away18 Pelham Road Salem New Hampshire 03079Dialysis Stations: 10 (603) 870-9487

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Footnotes:

  1. https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/profile.html#ID=225318