New England Homes for the Deaf

In addition to performing well overall, this facility also received a nearly flawless inspection report. As a result, it earned one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. Inspection ratings account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we consider is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this area usually have few severe deficiencies. This place received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered severe. This indicates that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to create an imminent risk to resident health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in this industry.

This facility also was superb in the category of short-term care, where it received a score of A. Not many nursing homes fared better in this area. Our short-term care ratings are likely more critical for individuals in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing. This means not just nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Among its many impressive grades, this facility received an excellent nursing grade. In fact, we gave it a grade of A- in that category. Our nursing rating is largely associated with a facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

The last category we scored was this facility's worst area. However, even in its weakest link we still gave it a respectable grade of B- for our long-term care category. Our long-term care grade assesses a nursing home's assistance with daily living rather than the skilled therapy and healthcare services that are critical to a skilled nursing facility. In addition to assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.