The Center for Nursing and Rehab at Hoosick Falls

On top of receiving a strong overall grade, this facility fared even better in our inspections category which is based on the facility's recent inspections. We gave it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our best scores. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining our inspection ratings. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies are relatively minor. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another one of this nursing home's quality category grades came in the area of long-term care. We gave them one of our stronger grades in that category, with a score of B+. Long-term care ratings in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. After assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 97.81421 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the majority of nursing homes. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Another strong feature for this facility is that it received an impressive nursing grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B+. When computing our nursing ratings, we analyze both nursing hours and the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last category we rated is short-term care, which turned out to be a low point for this nursing home. We awarded this facility a D for short-term care, rendering this the nursing home's weakest category grade. We would still recommend that you consider all of a nursing home's grades. Short-term care grades are often employed to measure a facility's rehabilitation services. In order to have high-end rehabilitation services, facilities generally need to have higher levels of highly skilled nursing. These types of services include registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other highly trained professionals. In this nursing home's case, we found that it provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. This definitely was not a strength for this facility. We found that just 3.9 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, about half of their residents are able to return home so this is well below average.