South Shore Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

The primary reason this facility received a decent overall grade is its impeccable inspections in recent years. We gave it one of our higher scores in that area, with an A+. This is a much better score than the place's overall score, which was decent but certainly not elite. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Facilities with better grades in this category most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Fortunately, although this nursing home had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is always a good sign.

This facility also received a positive grade in our long-term care category. We awarded this facility an above average grade of B in that area. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it typically means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to reside on a permanent basis. After assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 97.31183 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The next area we assessed was short-term care, in which this facility received an F. Our short-term care grades are presumably more meaningful for people needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more skilled nursing. This includes not only nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Based on its grade in this area, we weren't stunned to discover that this nursing home is well below average in terms of the number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours offered to its residents based on the data we looked at. Honestly, this was about what we expected here. The last metric we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.1 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these subpar statistics doomed this nursing home's short-term care score.

The final area we graded is nursing. Unfortunately, we gave it an F for this area, which is a rock bottom grade. This is obviously a significant concern. In computing a nursing home's nursing score, we assess the quantity of hours nurses are caring for residents and the level of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home offered a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is not a very impressive figure. In addition to ranking below average in nursing hours per resident, this place also had poor marks in the quality-based metrics we looked at in calculating our nursing ratings. We looked at the percentage of residents sustaining major falls and pressure ulcers. This nursing home was at roughly 1.5 times the national average in both of these data points. This is likely a bad sign when you consider that many falls and bed sores are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. These scores pulled down this facility's nursing rating significantly.