Northwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center
1010 Varnum Avenue, Lowell MA 01854 · (978) 458-8773 · 93% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
With an address in Lowell, Massachusetts, Northwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center is one of eight available facilities there. This facility was given an extremely poor overall score based on the data we looked at. Lowell received a city grade of B-, so there are other options in the city worth considering. We wouldn't blame you if you're ready to stop reading and find another nursing home. However, if you want to learn more about this facility's category grades, nursing grades are discussed in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 123 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
Even though we gave this nursing home a terrible overall grade, we gave it a grade of B- for our nursing category. The nursing grade consists of quite a few factors, many of which are tied to levels of nurse staffing. With 4 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis, this nursing home surpassed the national average. We also look at the qualifications of these nurses and add more weight to hours worked by skilled nurses. Lastly, we also factored in some quality-based assessments. This place scored well in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. By way of illustration, in terms of the number of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, this place performed better than the national average. This is generally an indicator that a place has quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented with better nursing care.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility also didn't perform terribly in the category of short-term care. In fact, we gave it a B- for that area, which wound up being among its higher grades. With our short-term care grade, we attempt to create a fair barometer for rehabilitation. In this process, we assess a facility's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. One of this nursing home's strengths is physical therapy hours. We found that it offers at least 50% more hours with physical therapists to its residents than most other facilities. The last datapoint we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients that ultimately were able to return home from the facility. It performed better than most facilities in this area with 49.3 percent of its residents returning home. At most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Long-term Care Quality
We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that this nursing home earned a solid long-term care grade in our assessment. We gave it a B- in that area. In determining our long-term care scores, we look at the assistance with daily living received by a facility's residents. Although we determined this facility had an impressive amount of nursing hours provided by aids and other nursing staff, we found its vaccine statistics to be somewhat slightly lower than we anticipated. It gave the pneumonia vaccine to just 90.86538 percent of its residents. This is one figure we would love to see this nursing home bring up. On a more positive note, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.23 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than the average nursing home.
Facility Inspections
Turning to our final category of inspections, this facility received a grade that's as bad as it gets. We weight this category more heavily than our other categories. When a nursing home has this poor of an inspection grade, you should look for severe deficiencies on its inspection report. Severe deficiencies indicate a threat to resident safety. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that we have information on deficiency's for this nursing home. Lastly, this nursing home was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. This is generally a really bad sign. We would never recommend this facility.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Northwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term care residents who developed new or worsened pressure ulcers . We use this statistic in calculating our nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of patients who suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in major injuries are routinely associated with lower levels of patient supervision. More 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 indicates the percentage of residents who suffered from a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are often caused by lower quality nursing care. More frequent bathing can minimize the percentage of residents in a nursing home who suffer from UTI's. Note that this metric is affected by by the fact that facilities have incongruent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percentage of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic drugs may be vital to many patients, it is important to ensure these medications are being used only where medically required. In some cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate that a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients who are exhibiting signs of depression. Many in the industry argue that this is a measure of quality of care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients who were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home residents, making these vaccines vital to patient care.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care patients that required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and continence. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of residents who retained mobility levels over time. Preserving mobility is usually a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of care. There is typically a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and the quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric is a measure of the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the physical abilities of patients.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term care. There is generally a correlation between reduced emergency room visits and the overall quality of care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percent of short-term care residents who saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. High levels of independence with ADL's often correlates with superior rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better