Sherrill House

We also found that this facility excelled in our long-term care rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. When nursing homes receive this kind of grade in this category it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly is often a life or death illness for nursing home patients so we like it when a facility does not roll the dice on this issue. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

An additional reason we assessed this nursing home so highly is that it was awarded an A+ short-term care score. This is simply as elite as it gets in this category. In our short-term care category, we seek to forge a valuable barometer for rehabilitation. 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. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this category is the number of residents who eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that 6.4 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Continuing with its first-class performance, this facility also received an A+ inspection grade. This grade is based on its recent inspection reports. Inspection grades are based on many datapoints found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that receive favorable grades in this area have few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these facilities should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. 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.

In the last category, this facility also was awarded an excellent nursing rating, with a grade of A. This finished off a straight A profile. Our nursing score analyzes many data points, most of which are based on quantities of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics 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 nursing home Massachusetts in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as having a policy of turning patients at least once a day.