Waban Health Center

On top of being a quality nursing home overall, this facility really excelled in the area of nursing, where it received an A-. Few nursing homes fared better in this area. We looked at the licensure of nurses employed by the nursing home, as well as the quantity of time the nurses worked with residents, in determining our grade in this area. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 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 many times be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

In addition, this nursing home received excellent government inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our better scores in that category, with a grade of A-. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this category typically have very few severe deficiencies. This nursing home received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This indicates that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies to be an immediate threat to patient health or safety. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspections are rare in the industry.

This facility was given a favorable short-term care score as well. We awarded it one of our better scores in that area with a score of B. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to evaluate indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 2.3 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

The next area we assessed is long-term care. We awarded it a grade of B- in that area. This is a decent grade in this category. For long-term care residents, the primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. Once we concluded our assessment of the amount of nursing care, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 93.548386 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Nevertheless, this place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.