West River Rehab Center

One of the many reasons this place turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ in our inspections category. This is just about as good as it gets in this very important area. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection scores. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some are quite minor. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Another strong feature for this nursing home is that it was awarded a favorable long-term care score. Indeed, this proved to be its second best category score. In this area, we gave this nursing home a B+. In a long-term care environment, the facility's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. Based on the long-term care data we were able to find for this facility, you could certainly do much worse than this place.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B in this area. Our nursing score weighs several factors. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spend with patients. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place Connecticut in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of turning a resident more frequently.

The last area we graded is short-term care. This facility was awarded an above average short-term care grade in our assessment, with a grade of B. This facility really did not have any weak grades. Short-term care ratings are important for residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing services. This means a wide scope of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we looked at in this category is the number of patients that were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.