Northbridge Health Care Center

In addition to receiving an elite overall score, this facility received an A+ inspection grade. This grade is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. An A+ in this area is one of the highest complements we can pay to a nursing home. Inspection scores weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this area tend to have few of these severe deficiencies. It does not appear that we have deficiency data for this facility. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

To complement its first-rate accomplishments in other areas, we gave this facility a grade of A- for our long-term care rating. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. Clearly we were satisfied with what we found for this category.

This facility also was awarded an impressive short-term care grade. Indeed, we gave it an above average score of B in this category. In calculating our short-term care grades, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The goal is to create a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Unfortunately, it does not look like this facility submitted information about its staffing of registered nurses or physical therapists. The last item we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

The next area we scored is nursing, where this facility was awarded a B. Although this is its lowest category grade, this is nevertheless a quality rating. Our nursing grade is based on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of skill of those nurses as well as the quantity of hours spent with patients. This facility provided 0.3 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 data points as reliable measures of the caliber of nursing care being provided, since better care tends to reduce these problems.