Our Ladys Haven of Fairhaven

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ long-term care grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 98.175186 percent of its patients, which is much higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. There are a host of datapoints included in this grade. Many of these criteria are tied to nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a protocol of moving a patient more frequently.

Adding to its fine profile, this facility also received a strong short-term care grade, with a grade of A-. In computing these short-term care ratings, we quantify the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the percentage of residents that ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Completing its excellent profile, this facility also performed well in our inspection category. In fact, we awarded it a score of B+ for that area. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places with better scores in this category typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.