Westfield Center

Located in Westfield, Massachusetts, Westfield Center is one of just three facilities in this area. Sporting an overall rating of A, we rated this nursing home as the highest scoring nursing home in Westfield. An overall score in this range is a strong indicator of top-shelf facility. We really can't say enough favorable things about this facility. Headlining this place's remarkable profile is its inspection rating, which is addressed in the next paragraph.

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

On the list of its many high-end scores, this nursing home was given a top-shelf long-term care score. In fact, we gave it a score of A in that area. Facilities that do well in this category tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. After assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is far higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.36 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than most nursing homes.

This nursing home also performed well in the area of short-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A-. Very few nursing homes performed better in this area. With our short-term care rating, we attempt to craft a fair gauge for rehabilitation services. In this process, we look at the facility's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. One reason for this facility's strong score in this category is that it provides more care with registered nurses to its residents than the average nursing home. The final statistic we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return home. This place fared as well as just about any facility in Massachusetts in this area with 56.1 percent of its residents returning home. At most nursing homes, less than half of their short-stay patients are able to return home.

Moving on to our next category, this facility received an excellent nursing score. We gave it a grade of B+ in that area, topping off one of our more favorable profiles. We weighed the qualifications of nurses at the facility, in addition to the number of hours the nurses spent with patients, in determining our grade in this area. This facility provided 3.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some quality-based measures in this category. This facility fared well in some of the quality measures we assessed. By way of illustration, in terms of the number of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, this facility performed better than the national average. This is generally an indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided with better nursing care.