Northern Dauphin Nursing & Rehabilitation

Although we graded this place incredibly poorly overall, it actually received a relatively impressive inspection report this year. As a result, it earned one of our more favorable scores in that category with a B. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. You should avoid facilities with too many severe deficiencies flagged. This facility was assessed 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors didn't deem any of these deficiencies to create an immediate risk to resident safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

We were also surprised to find that this facility received a decent nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of C in that category. When computing our nursing grades, we weigh both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, which is not an impressive total. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility actually fared better in some of the quality measures we looked at. In fact, it scored well when it comes to avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is every bit as important as the number of hours of care provided.

The third category we assessed is short-term care. This facility's received a rock-bottom short-term care score where it was given an F. In our short-term care category, we try to create a valuable barometer for rehabilitation services. In this process, we look at a nursing home's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. With its weak score in this area, we weren't shocked to discover that this place offered far fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Finally, we considered the number of residents who returned home from this nursing home. This facility didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 3.4 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was well off the national average.

The last area we assessed was long-term care. This facility received an abysmal grade of F in that category. Facilities that do not fare well in this category typically aren't as well-staffed and are lagging in a few of the areas of routine medical care we looked at. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. We were disappointed to learn that this facility vaccinated a relatively low 89.17836 percent of its patients against pneumonia. To our surprise, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had less hospitalizations than the average nursing home. This is its best score in this category.