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Future Care Northpoint Nursing Home
1046 S. NORTH POINT ROAD
BALTIMORE, MD 21224
(410) 282-0100
- Located in Baltimore City, Maryland
- For-profit corporation
- Certified beds: 180
- Last Medicare rating: 4 stars
- Our pending lawsuit against this nursing home alleging wrongful death
FutureCare NorthPoint is a Baltimore nursing home owned by FutureCare, which owns 14 nursing home facilities in Maryland. Eight of these nursing homes are in Baltimore City. It is near Dundalk near the site of a great battle in the War of 1812. FutureCare has managed and operated 180 bed-bed facilities since 2007. FutureCare Northpoint offers both short and long-term care. This nursing home provides rehabilitation, speech therapy, wound care management, pain management, and IV therapies.
Medicare routinely inspects nursing homes and rates them with numerical scores. This FutureCare facility's most recent standard Medicare survey, in May 2015, produced an overall 4-star (above-average) rating, as well as four stars for its health inspection and quality measures. But perhaps the most important number to watch, going forward, is one that usually seems innocuous: the resident headcount.
According to its last official census, FutureCare NorthPoint had a total of 129 residents - notably larger than the Maryland and U.S. averages of 107.5 and 86.2, respectively. But with a total of 180 certified beds, this FutureCare facility was nowhere near capacity. Would this facility be able to maintain its 4-star quality level if it had 50 more residents?
But let's not quibble in the weeds. Setting aside our pending lawsuit against this nursing home -- which makes us wildly lacking in objectivity -- this is one of the better rated FutureCare nursing homes.
FutureCare NorthPoint CompetitorsThere are many competitors in Baltimore. Here are a few nearby.
- Future Care Canton Harbor: The only other nursing home in the same zip code is, you guessed it, another FutureCare nursing home. This 142-bed facility is 4.4 miles from Northpoint, mostly driving down Eastern Avenue.
- Riverview Rehabilitation & Health Care Center: This Essex facility did well in its last standard Medicare health inspection, but otherwise it is an underachiever. It got 1-star ratings for quality measures and for staffing (the worst and unusually poor). It is hard to argue this is a better facility than either of the FutureCare facilities. This facility is also 4.4 miles from Northpoint (but a little bit further drive with traffic)
You can get a complete list of Baltimore City nursing homes and their reviews and ratings here.
NumbersGetting back to Northpoint, The size of the resident population has a meaningful connection to the Medicare metric on staffing. Medicare does most everything by the numbers, and it rates a facility's staffing based on the amount of time residents get with nursing staffers. If a facility were to add 50 new residents, without expanding its nursing staff, what would happen to its Medicare staffing score?
As things stand, FutureCare NorthPoint got an overall Medicare rating of 3 stars on staffing. That "average" rating is a bit surprising because this facility's numbers were mostly above the Maryland and national averages. Residents here got more total nursing time per day than average; and they got more time daily with RNs in particular (this facility got a 4-star rating for RNs). They got more daily time with LPNs and LVNs (licensed practical nurses, licensed vocational nurses), and equal or more time, on average, with physical therapists. Only in the category of certified nursing assistants did this facility provide less daily time to residents than the Maryland and U.S. averages.
This facility's staffers got excellent results for short-stay residents, earning a 4-star rating for quality measures in the process. FutureCare NorthPoint was extremely good at preventing bed sores among these residents, whose incidence rate of 0.2 percent was one-sixth as much as the Maryland and U.S. averages (1.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). This is good and it is an important marker for good patient care.
Only 2.4 percent of the short-stay residents here reported having moderate to severe pain - five or six times less than the Maryland and U.S. averages (13.8 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively). This facility had an above-average rate of successful discharges, and its former residents were much less likely than average to need an ER visit. FutureCare NorthPoint was significantly better than average on vaccinating short-stay residents against flu and pneumonia.
Mostly PlusesRespecting long-stay residents, FutureCare NorthPoint had mostly good Medicare scores, although it did have two notably bad ones.
On the plus side, this facility again did very well in terms of residents' pain levels: long-stay residents here reported serious pain only half as often as the Maryland average, and only one-third as often as the national average. This facility gave flu and pneumonia vaccinations to just about everybody and applied physical restraints to none. Coming from lawyers who have sued this nursing home, we can say this is pretty good (assuming, of course, it is accurate).
Its long-term residents had lower-than-average rates of urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers (bed sores), and serious weight loss.
On the minus side, this facility's long-term residents had a bit more trouble, on average, in maintaining their mobility and their independence in conducting routine daily activities; and they were slightly more prone to suffer a fall with injury. By far the worst stats for this facility's long-stay residents were for incontinence and depression. Some 83.8 percent of the long-stay residents here lost their bowel or bladder control (versus 58.5 percent statewide, 46.8 nationally). And the rate of depressive symptoms among these residents, at 13.7 percent, was over twice the Maryland and U.S. averages (4.7 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively).
So FutureCare NorthPoint did have a few bad scores. We also must give due credit to this facility for what it did not have. In its last standard health inspection, FutureCare NorthPoint did not have many deficiencies: only 5, versus the 7.1 national average and the 11.4-deficiency average for Maryland. This FutureCare facility did not have many fire safety deficiencies, either: just one, versus the Maryland average of 4, and the U.S. average of 3.4.
Baltimore Nursing Home LawyerHave you been harmed or have lost a loved one from a negligent nursing home? Call our nursing home lawyer at Miller & Zois today at (800) 553-8082 or get a FREE no obligation case review.
More Information- Northpoint is chosen as one of the U.S. News & World Report "Best Nursing Homes" list for 2017
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1Vital Statistics
Number of Beds:155 certified beds
Beds in the nursing home that have been approved by the federal government to participate in Medicare or Medicaid.
Accepts:Medicare and Medicaid
Shows if the nursing home participates in the Medicare, Medicaid, or both.
2Key Ratings
| Star Rating Summary | ||
| Overall Rating |  | Above Average |
| Health Inspection Medicare assigns the star rating based on a nursing home's weighted score from recent health inspections. More stars means fewer health risks | | Above Average |
| Staffing Medicare assigns the star rating based on the nursing home's staffing hours for Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practice Nurses (LPNs), Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs), and Nurse aides. More stars means a better level of staffing per nursing home resident | | Above Average |
| RN Staffing | | Above Average |
| Quality Measures Medicare assigns the star rating based on data from a select set of clinical data measures. More stars means better quality of care | | Above Average |
3Key Short Stay Statistics
| Description | Future Care Northpoint | Maryland Average |
| Percent of short-stay residents who self-report moderate to severe pain Lower percentages are better. | 5.3% | 10.4% |
| Percentage of SNF residents with pressure ulcers that are new or worsened Lower percentages are better. | 1.3% | Not Available |
| Percent of short-stay residents assessed and given, appropriately, the seasonal influenza vaccine Higher percentages are better. | 96.0% | 85.3% |
| Percent of short-stay residents assessed and given, appropriately, the pneumococcal vaccine Higher percentages are better. | 93.4% | 84.0% |
| Percentage of short-stay residents who got antipsychotic medication for the first time Lower percentages are better. | 2.2% | 1.7% |
4Key Long Stay Statistics
| Description | Future Care Northpoint | Maryland Average |
| Percent of long-stay residents experiencing one or more falls with major injury Lower percentages are better. | 0.3% | 2.7% |
| Percent of long-stay residents with a urinary tract infection Lower percentages are better. | 1.5% | 2.5% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who self-report moderate to severe pain Lower percentages are better. | 3.5% | 5.4% |
| Percent of long-stay high-risk residents with pressure ulcers Lower percentages are better. | 8.5% | 8.8% |
| Percent of long-stay low-risk residents who lose control of their bowels or bladder Lower percentages are better. | 71.1% | 62.3% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who have or had a catheter inserted and left in their bladder Lower percentages are better. | 2.7% | 1.7% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who were physically restrained Lower percentages are better. | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Percentage of long-stay residents whose ability to move independently worsened Lower percentages are better. | 19.8% | 22.5% |
| Percent of long-stay residents whose need for help with daily activities has increased Lower percentages are better. | 11.7% | 18.0% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who lose too much weight Lower percentages are better. | 4.9% | 5.8% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who have depressive symptoms Lower percentages are better. | 18.2% | 3.9% |
| Percentage of long-stay residents who received an antianxiety or hypnotic medication Lower percentages are better. | 11.8% | 16.2% |
| Percent of long-stay residents assessed and given, appropriately, the seasonal influenza vaccine Higher percentages are better. | 98.2% | 96.7% |
| Percent of long-stay residents assessed and given, appropriately, the pneumococcal vaccine Higher percentages are better. | 96.0% | 94.1% |
| Percent of long-stay residents who received an antipsychotic medication Lower percentages are better. | 6.3% | 12.4% |
5Inspection Summary
Date of standard health inspection:10/19/2018
Total number of health deficiencies:9
Average number of health deficiencies in Maryland:14.9
