Valley Health Services is a large non-profit nursing home located in Herkimer, New York. With an overall grade of A-, this facility is one of the higher-rated facilities we looked at. We were so impressed with this facility that we ranked it in the top third of all facilities in the United States. The best part of this facility's strong profile was its inspection grade. Inspection grades are discussed in the next section
Valley Health Services
- Nursing Home
- Adult Day Care
Updated Sep 1, 2022 by Nick Lata
Quick Details
- Accepts Medicare 1
- Accepts Medicaid 1
- No CCRC
- Has Resident Council
- Has Family Council
- Non profit - Corporation
- Offers Hospice
- Offers Inpatient Rehab
- Offers Outpatient Rehab
Specialized Services
- Personal Care
- Transportation
- Speech Therapy
- Stroke Recovery
- Amputee Recovery
- Palliative Care
- Dentistry
- Wound Care
- Occupational Therapy
- Cardiac Therapy
- Podiatry
- Physical Therapy
- Nutritional Counseling
- Pharmacy
- Laboratory
Registered Staff Hours
Facility Inspections
In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Places with better scores in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This nursing home received 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't consider any of these deficiencies to cause an immediate risk to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home also was superb in the category of long-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A-. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. Facilities that do well in long-term care typically provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. One of the datapoints we considered after nursing hours was vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 99.12281 percent of its residents. This is a reliable method to minimize unnecessary hospitalizations for the elderly population. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.
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Short-term Care Quality
The next category we looked at was short-term care. Contributing to its superb resume, this nursing home also excelled in this category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of of A- in that category. In our short-term care score, we attempt to craft a meaningful barometer for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we analyze the facility's scope of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this facility's residents returned home.
Nurse Quality
Switching gears to the last area, this nursing home was given a decent nursing score. Although this was not quite as elite as some of its other category grades, this is still not a major area of concern. The nursing grade consists of many data points, however, the paramount consideration is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility actually fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. In fact, it performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Valley Health Services Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Valley Health Services, 9.58% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This datapoint is an indication of the percent of long-term residents who suffer from new or worsened pressure ulcers or bed sores. We factor in this statistic in computing both nursing and long-term care grades.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Valley Health Services, 3.04% of Patients had Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of residents who sustained a major fall. Falls leading to major injuries are considered by many experts to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . Major falls are routinely the result of poor nursing care.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Valley Health Services, 2.1% of Patients had UTIs
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are routinely associated with nursing homes with worse hygiene protocols. Better hygiene protocols minimizes the number of UTI's sustained by residents in a nursing home. We want to point out that this metric is affected by by the fact that facilities have different reporting standards for UTI's.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Valley Health Services, 11.59% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percent of patients prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic drugs may be vital to many patients, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used appropriately. In limited situations, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean that a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Valley Health Services, 13.3% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percent of patients prescribed antianxiety drugs. These medications are prescribed to residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Valley Health Services, 13.2% of Patients
This is a measure of the percent of long-term care patients demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Valley Health Services, 91.26% of Patients
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care residents who have received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home patients, making these types of vaccines vital to patient safety.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Valley Health Services, 14.75% Percentage of Patients
This tells you the percent of patients who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could indicate deterioration of a patient's medical condition.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Valley Health Services, 17.32% Percentage of Residents
This indicates the percentage of patients that were able to retain mobility over time. Retaining mobility can be a good sign for residents' health.
Hospitalizations
In Valley Health Services, 1.31 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. There is usually a correlation between reduced hospitalizations and the overall quality of care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Valley Health Services, 17.32 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This metric tracks the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. Minimizing rehospitalizations during rehabilitation is important to restoring the health of residents.
Short-term Care: ER Visits
In Valley Health Services, 8.8 Percentage of Patients
This is the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
In Valley Health Services, 75.07% Percentage of Resident
This metric measures the percentage of short-term care residents who saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Some experts argue that this is a measure of rehabilitation services.
Nearby Hospitals
- Little Falls HospitalCritical Access Hospitals 7.68 miles away140 Burwell Street Little Falls New York 13365Voluntary non-profit - Private(315) 823-5261
- St Elizabeth Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 13.96 miles away2209 Genesee Street Utica New York 13501Voluntary non-profit - Private(315) 798-8100
- Mohawk Valley Psychiatric CenterPsychiatric 14.08 miles away1400 Noyes St Utica New York 13502Government - Local(315) 797-6800
Nearby Dialysis
- Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare - Herkimer0.81 miles away201 East State Street Herkimer New York 13350Dialysis Stations: 8 (315) 574-3025
- Bassett Healthcare Little Falls Dialysis7.62 miles away140 Burwell Street Little Falls New York 13365Dialysis Stations: 12 (315) 508-9100
- Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare - Masonic10.51 miles away2150 Bleeker Street Utica New York 13501Dialysis Stations: 20 (315) 724-3897
- Fslh-St. Luke's Home Renal Dialysis12.76 miles away1650 Champlain Avenue Utica New York 13502Dialysis Stations: 8 (315) 624-8998
- Faxton-St. Lukes Healthcare13.66 miles away1676 Sunset Ave Utica New York 13502CMS Rating: 3 stars Dialysis Stations: 36 (315) 624-5660