Hughes Health and Rehabilitation Center in West Hartford, which was started 55 years ago by Dr. Eugene Flaxman and is still owned by him, won the Gold Quality Award.
Nationally, only 31 nursing homes have gained the distinction and before this, Manchester Manor Health Care Center and Glen Hill Center in Danbury were the only Connecticut homes to reach the gold level, Matthew V. Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, said in a press release.
Touchpoints at Manchester received a Silver Quality Award, and three Connecticut facilities, Arbors of Hop Brook in Manchester, Lutheran Home of Southbury and Brighton Gardens of Stamford, received the Bronze Quality Award this year.
Mark Finkelstein, the administrator and vice president at Hughes Health, said winning the award was years in the making. The home had to attain the bronze and silver levels, then undergo an extensive review, including submitting a lengthy written study and hosting four examiners for two days who interviewed staff members around the clock, he said.
“It is tremendously rigorous,” he said. “We were all elated” to receive the award.
Finkelstein said the awards are based on a nursing home’s leadership, strategic planning, customer and staff satisfaction and “superior” results with patients. Hughes Health will hold the gold award for five years and can then re-apply for it, he said.
