The Gardens at Blue Ridge
3625 North Progress Ave, Harrisburg PA 17110 · (717) 652-2345 · 95.15% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
With an address in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, The Gardens at Blue Ridge is one of five available facilities in the city. This facility was given a rock bottom overall grade based on the data we assessed. Unfortunately, the city grade for Harrisburg isn't too much better. Nevertheless, you still should be able to do better More information on this facility's category grades may be found below. Its best category is inspections, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 95 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
Sadly, we didn't have any good things to say about this nursing home's overall grade or its other ratings. Its best category was the category of inspections. Nevertheless, with just a D in this area, it still performed relatively badly. One of the more important factors in evaluating inspection reports is deficiencies. We recommend you pay close attention to the level of severity of those deficiencies. This facility was assessed 10 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of the deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they posed a threat to resident safety or health. Lastly, we also want to point out that this nursing home received significant government fines in recent years amounting to over $100,000. This usually suggests that a facility's poor performance has been an issue for several years.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility's second best category is short-term care, but it nevertheless received a grade of just D in that category. This ended up being a relatively poor grade. In computing our short-term care grades, we scrutinize the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This rating is frequently a useful assessment of the nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. Given its weak grade in this category, we were not stunned to find that this nursing home provided significantly fewer registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The last metric we considered in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 38.3 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. This statistic was damning for this facility's short-term care grade.
Nurse Quality
We were surprised to find that this facility also excelled in the category of nursing. In fact, we gave it an impressive grade of D for that category, which is one of our highest grades. Our nursing rating analyzes many components, however, the most important consideration is the number of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided just 3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is an alarmingly low total. To pair with its low totals in the area of nursing hours per patient, this facility also did not fare as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in calculating our nursing ratings. We looked at the percentage of residents experiencing pressure ulcers and major falls. This facility had more falls and pressure ulcers than the average nursing home.
Long-term Care Quality
The last area we scored was long-term care. Sadly, it received an abysmal F for this area, which is an abysmal grade. In a long-term care environment, the primary goal is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. After we finished assessing the amount of nursing care, we turned to the facility's vaccination statistics. We were optimistic to find that this nursing home vaccinated 95.96273 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. We found that this nursing home had 2.3 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, this figure is far less impressive than its vaccination record.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
The Gardens at Blue Ridge Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of patients that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are considered to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . Pressure ulcers, which are also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percent of patients that suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in major injury are often linked to lower quality nursing care. Additional nurse staffing can limit the percentage of residents in a nursing home who sustain major falls.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term care residents which have experienced UTI's. UTI's could be an indication of worse hygiene protocols. However, this statistic could also be misleading for certain nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This statistic measures the percentage of long-term patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medication. High levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior in situations where such drugs are not medically required. However, some nursing homes may need to rely more on these medications due to an increased number of residents suffering from cognitive disorders.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This statistic tells you the percentage of long-term residents which were given antianxiety medication. These medications are given to patients suffering from depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients showing depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be fatal for seniors, making these types of vaccines vital to patient care.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percent of residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of needing for assistance with activities of daily living may be a sign of the erosion of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric tracks the percentage of long-term residents that maintained mobility. Many would argue that mobility is critical to residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This datapoint measures the percent of short-term stay residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many believe that this is a measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better