Vermont Healthcare Center

While we gave this facility a poor overall rating, we actually gave it a somewhat respectable grade in the area of inspections, where it received a B-. This was better than its other category grades. We would argue that one of the most critical factors in assessing an inspection report is deficiencies. We especially look at the severity of those deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Lastly, this nursing home was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. This is generally a really bad sign. We would never recommend this facility.

We also want to point out that this facility received a decent grade in our nursing category. We awarded it a grade of B- in the area. Nursing ratings are tied to quantity of nursing care available. This nursing home provides 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home surprisingly fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It scored well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be measures of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.

This facility's next best category came in the area of short-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. In the area of short-term care, we seek to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Unfortunately, we found that this facility provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The last statistic we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that just 6.2 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is below average.

Our last area is long-term care, where we gave this facility a B- in this category. In determining our long-term care grades, we size up the assistance with daily living received by a facility's residents. After assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.