WEST HARTFORD, CT – November 3, 2017 – Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation received its first ever overall five-star rating from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

A five-star designation is the highest rating possible that a skilled nursing facility can receive. The ratings are calculated from state survey results, quality measures and staffing levels, which are each assigned a score. A point value or star is provided for each of these categories and the scores are combined to calculate an overall star rating.

The rating culminates a year-long effort to enhance the quality of care and services at the Hebrew Center by its new operator, National Health Care Associates (NHCA). A new Administrator, Director of Nursing and other key leaders have been an integral part of this achievement.

In addition, Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation was recently “Passport Rehabilitation Certified” by NHCA. The Passport Rehabilitation Program provides enhanced staff training on the unique needs and care practices of short-term patients in a skilled nursing setting.

“Each day, we aim to provide compassionate quality care to all those we serve,” said Penni Martin, Administrator. “We hold ourselves to a very high standard and a five-star rating is a phenomenal achievement – one that we certainly don’t take for granted.”

“CMS has recognized our high quality of care, this is an accomplishment that is a direct result of the dedication and compassionate care given by all staff to our residents,” stated Marvin Ostreicher, president of National Health Care Associates.

“We have a great staff here, we do a tremendous amount of care training to keep our staff skills up to date, spend a good deal of time on customer service and work to make this facility a great environment for our residents and their families, as well as our employees; it’s great for our staff to be recognized in such a way,” added Penni Martin, the centers administrator.

How Rating is Determined

Nursing homes are graded on several areas, including Health Inspections, Staffing, and Quality Measures. The health inspection rating contains information from the last 3 years of onsite inspections, including both standard surveys and any complaint surveys.  The staffing rating has information about the number of hours of care provided on average to each resident each day by nursing staff.  The quality measure rating has information on 11 different physical and clinical measures for nursing home residents.   This information is collected by the nursing home for all residents.  The QMs offer information about how well nursing homes are caring for their residents’ physical and clinical needs.  More than 12 million assessments of the conditions of nursing home residents are used in the Five-Star rating system” According to Medicare.gov.

For more information on comparing nursing homes and this rating system you can go to Medicare.gov/NursingHomeCompare.