Serenity Hill Nursing Center

In addition to earning a strong overall grade, this nursing home also performed well in our inspections category, which is based on its inspection reports. In fact, we gave it an A- for that category. Our inspection scores account for several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. 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.

We also want to note the fact that this nursing home received an elite score of A- in our long-term care area. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 86.666664 percent of its patients. This is slightly lower than we anticipated but still a decent percentage. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A- in our nursing category. There are a number of factors within this area. Most of the criteria are tied to nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 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 facility Massachusetts in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving residents even once per day.

Moving on to the fourth category, this facility also performed admirably in our short-term care category. We gave it a grade of B+ in that area. This topped off a first-rate profile. In the area of short-term care, we strive to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.