Avalon Springs Place
745 Greenville Road, Mercer PA 16137 · (724) 662-5400 · 86.5% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
With an address in Mercer, Pennsylvania, Avalon Springs Place is one of just a couple available nursing homes in the city. We awarded this facility an overall grade of B. A grade in this range requires quality scores in most areas. Based on our assessment, this facility looks like a good fit for most people. This facility's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection score, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 100 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of receiving a great overall score, this place also received top notch government inspections in recent years. We awarded them one of our higher scores in this category, with an A+. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in calculating our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Places with better scores in this area most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor leaves us less concerned with this inspection report.
Nurse Quality
Adding to its impressive resume, this place also excelled in the area of nursing. In fact, we gave it a grade of B+ for that category. In computing a facility's nursing rating, we consider the amount of time nurses are with residents as well as the levels of training of the nurses. This particular nursing home provided 4.1 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which was among the highest totals we found. Lastly, this nursing home also excelled in the quality-based metrics we assessed. For example, it fared as well as any facility the state in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these metrics as good indicators of the caliber of nursing care provided.
Long-term Care Quality
In addition, this nursing home also was given favorable long-term care grades in our assessment. Indeed, we awarded them one of our stronger scores in that area, with a grade of B. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure patients are well cared for. This facility's vaccination data weren't as favorable some of its other datapoints in this category, such as its nursing hours data. It gave the pneumonia vaccine to just 87.951805 percent of its patients. We would like to see some improvement herein this statistic in the future. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we hoped for, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.
Short-term Care Quality
The final category we analyzed is short-term care, which ended up being this nursing home's weakest category. We gave this facility a grade of D in that category. Of course, this score hurt the facility's overall grade a bit. Short-term care ratings are important for patients requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a wide range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. We found that this nursing home was subpar in two of the key staffing areas we focus on. It provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than most facilities. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 33 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these poor metrics sunk this facility's short-term care score.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Avalon Springs Place Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This datapoint tells you the percent of long-term stay residents that are suffering from pressure ulcers. We find that pressure ulcers are a great barometer of the quality of nursing care a nursing home provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of patients who have had a fall resulting in serious injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is a measure of the percent of long-term residents who have had urinary tract infections. While a higher rate of these infections could reflect poorly on a nursing home's cleanliness, it can be problematic to compare between nursing homes due to nursing homes having inconsistent reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric gauges the percent of long-term patients which were administered antipsychotic medication. Increased usage of these drugs may mean a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents in situations where such medications aren't medically required. However, some facilities may need to rely more on these drugs due to an increased number of residents with Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percentage of residents who were prescribed antianxiety medications. Antianxiety medications are administered to patients experiencing depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percent of patients showing signs of depression. High rates of depression could reveal a lower level of care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percent of patients that were administered the flu and pneumonia vaccines. High vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term residents who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and taking a bath. Some believe that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percentage of patients that maintained mobility over time. Optimizing mobility can be a great sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care. Avoiding the hospital is important to maintaining the physical well-being of nursing home patients.
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 care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric tracks the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percentage of short-term residents who saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better