Feds Update Nursing Home Ratings: See Hillsborough's Grades

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The federal government has given one nursing home in and around Hillsborough a one-star rating after tweaking the way it assesses thousands of nursing homes nationwide. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last month revised its inspection process and began providing improved staffing details and new quality metrics. The changes were aimed at providing more transparent and meaningful information about the quality of care that residents receive.

Below are the ratings for each nursing home near Hillsborough as of April 24, according to the agency’s Nursing Home Compare tool. The site provides detailed information about every Medicare-certified nursing home in America. Nursing homes with five stars are considered to have much above-average quality while those with one star are considered to have below-average quality.

• BRIDGEWAY CARE AND REHAB CENTER AT HILLSBOROUGH, 395 Amwell Road, Hillsborough
  • Overall: 2 stars, below average
  • Health inspections: 1 star, much below average
  • Staffing: 5 stars, much above average
  • Quality measures: 5 stars, much above average
• FOOTHILL ACRES REHABILITATION & NURSING CENTER, 39 East Mountain Road, Hillsborough
  • Overall: 5 stars, much above average
  • Health inspections: 3 stars, average
  • Staffing: 4 stars, above average
  • Quality measures: 5 stars, much above average
• THE ARBOR AT LAUREL CIRCLE, 100 Monroe St., Bridgewater
  • Overall: 5 stars, much above average
  • Health inspections: 4 stars, above average
  • Staffing: 5 stars, much above average
  • Quality measures: 5 stars, much above average
• REHAB AT RIVER'S EDGE, 633 Route 28, Raritan
  • Overall: 1 star, much below average
  • Health inspections: 2 stars, below average
  • Staffing: 1 star, much below average
  • Quality measures: 4 stars, above average
• STONEBRIDGE AT MONTGOMERY HEALTH CARE CENTER, 100 Hollinshead Spring Road, Skillman
  • Overall: 5 stars, much above average
  • Health inspections: 4 stars, above average
  • Staffing: 4 stars, above average
  • Quality measures: 5 stars, much above average

Notably, the agency is once again providing health inspection ratings, which were recently unfrozen. Now, every long-term care facility has had an opportunity to answer questions using the new survey process, according to CMS.

The threshold for staffing levels is also much more stringent now. Under the previous method, automatic one-star ratings (out of five) would be doled out to nursing homes that reported having no registered nurse on site for at least seven days in a quarter. That threshold has since been lowered to four days.

Nursing homes provide round-the-clock care to people who can’t be cared for at home and staffing has the “greatest impact” on the quality of care, the federal agency said — more staff, better quality. The updates will hopefully improve quality industry-wide, the agency said, and give consumers more confidence in their decisions.

"CMS is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of nursing home residents by ensuring they are receiving the highest quality of care possible," agency Administrator Seema Verm said in a news release.

The changes appear to have had a wide-ranging effect. There are more than 15,000 Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes in the country, and the CMS doled out one-star ratings to over 1,600 of them, according to Kaiser Health News. Most were reportedly downgraded because payroll records showed no registered nurse hours for at least four days. Other homes reportedly failed to submit payroll documents or couldn’t be verified.

CMS is a federal agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It administers the Medicare program and works with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and health insurance portability standards.

— Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.

Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.