The Boston Home

In addition to being a top notch facility overall, it also performed well in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. Few facilities performed better in this area. Arguably the most significant factor we look at in determining our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this category typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Adding to its strong resume, this facility also received an excellent nursing score, with a grade of A. Our nursing rating focuses on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This nursing home averages 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This facility also excelled in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a grade of A-. Few nursing homes received a better grade in this area. In the area of short-term care, we try to assess measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess a facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last statistic we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Moving on to the last area, this facility was given an extremely favorable long-term care rating. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B+ in this category, rounding out one of our more favorable profiles. When nursing homes receive a score in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.