Sharon Care Center

On top of earning a strong overall score, this facility also received an elite short-term care grade. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with an A+. Our short-term care grades are believed to be most meaningful for individuals needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last item we considered in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 6.5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Among this facility's other strengths is its elite nursing grade. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of A+. Nursing scores are mostly tied to the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of moving patients even once per day.

This nursing home earned its third best grade in inspections. Inspection ratings are based on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. We gave this facility a C in this category. These inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This nursing home had 9 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to find that none were in any of the categories labeled G through L. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies to be an imminent risk to patient health or safety. We really did not consider anything on this place's inspection report to be overly alarming.

Our last category is long-term care, where we awarded this nursing home a C in this area. Long-term care grades are often used to measure a nursing home's performance as a traditional nursing home, as opposed to focusing on the skilled nursing services provided by a skilled nursing facility. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is more than the average nursing home. Finally, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.