Alaska Gardens Health and Rehabilitation
6220 South Alaska Street, Tacoma WA 98408 · (253) 476-5300 · 76.74% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Alaska Gardens Health and Rehabilitation is a facility located in Tacoma, Washington which has 322,873 people. With an overall score of C, this is likely a middle of the road facility. This grade is right in line with the city grade in Tacoma, which admittedly is admittedly a little below average nationally. The best part of this place's profile was is its short-term care grade. short-term care grades are discussed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 123 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
This facility really excelled at short-term care. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our highest grades. This salvaged its profile. Our short-term care ratings are critical for individuals in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. This nursing home provides more services with physical therapists and registered nurses than most nursing homes we looked at. This is usually a favorable sign. Finally, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that it outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes in the nation in this area with 64.5 percent of its patients returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most facilities.
Nurse Quality
This facility also excelled in nursing, where it received an B+. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. Our nursing rating analyzes quite a few subcategories, most of which are associated with nursing hours. This facility provided 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these datapoints as good measures of the quality of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.
Facility Inspections
Unfortunately, this nursing home received a lowly F for its inspection rating. This is a particularly important category. Grades in this range often mean we found red flags on the facility's government inspection reports. We would advise paying special attention to any deficiencies on a facility's inspection reports when it receives this bad of an inspection score. We suggest you pay close attention to the severity of those deficiencies. This particular nursing home was assessed one category J through K deficiency, which rank among the worst categories of deficiencies. Lastly, we also would like to point out that this nursing home was assessed significant government fines totaling more than $100,000. This typically indicates that a poor track record has been an issue for multiple years.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home's least impressive area is long-term care, which is the final area we assessed. We gave it a lowly F in this area. Despite several acceptable grades in other areas, this grade is nevertheless of a concern so we wanted to draw your attention to it. Nursing homes that do not fare well in this category often don't provide as much nursing care and also may be struggling in some of the areas of routine healthcare services we assessed. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Candidly, we were a bit concerned this nursing home provided the vaccine to just 86.181816 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this nursing home was actually decent at limiting hospitalizations. Although it had 1.91 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, its risk adjusted metric was not bad since it had some more complex patients. This is its best score in this category
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Alaska Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percent of patients that have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are considered to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . Pressure ulcers, which are also called bed sores, are routinely the result of residents not being moved frequently enough.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percent of residents that sustained a major fall. Falls resulting in serious injury are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a measure of the quality of nursing care at a nursing home. Major falls are often the result of lower levels of patient supervision.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of residents who have had a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered to be an indicator of nursing care . UTI's are routinely associated with a facility with worst hygiene practices. However, this metric can be skewed for some facilities due to varying reporting standards for these infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percent of patients prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic medications are administered to residents for many conditions, such as cognitive disorders. Sadly, in limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This figure is an indication of the percent of long-term care patients who were prescribed antianxiety drugs. These drugs are prescribed to residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
Measures the percent of long-term stay patients who are exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percent of residents who were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term care patients who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as getting dressed and eating.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
Measures the percentage of long-term stay patients that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. There is generally a correlation between having fewer emergency room visits and the overall quality of rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term patients that experienced functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better