Putnam Center

Even though this facility's overall grade was as bad as it gets, it didn't perform quite as poorly in long-term care. In fact, we gave it a C for that area, which isn't bad. This was not enough to spare its otherwise poor profile. Long-term care grades focus on a nursing home's assistance with daily living rather than the skilled nursing and healthcare services that are critical to a rehabilitation facility. After assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to find that this facility vaccinated 99 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Finally, this place was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility also didn't grade out poorly in the category of short-term care. Indeed, we awarded it a grade of C for that category, which ended up being among its more respectable grades. Short-term care scores are important for individuals in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a vast range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It offered fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. It is important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. 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 just 4.4 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is below average.

Turning to the area of nursing care, this facility received a grade of just D in this category. In determining our nursing scores, we weigh both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in calculating our nursing ratings. This place fared well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. Many consider these metrics to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

The final category we looked at is inspections. This ended up being this nursing home's weakest link. We gave it just a D in this category. Since this information is compiled by independent government inspectors, we weight it heavily in our grading. One of the most important factors in assessing an inspection report is deficiencies. We recommend you pay close attention to the level of severity of those deficiencies. This particular facility was hit with 6 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that suggest they created a threat to resident safety or health. Lastly, we want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility was assessed significant government fines in excess of $50,000. This often suggests that government inspectors grew tired after several years of bad government inspections.