Benchmark Senior Living at The Commons in Lincoln

In addition to earning a strong overall score, this facility fared even better in the area of inspections which is associated with the facility's recent inspection reports. We awarded it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our best scores. Arguably the most important factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this category most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another one of this facility's quality category scores came in the category of long-term care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that category, with a grade of B+. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 96.55173 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents healthy. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Turning to our third area, this facility also received a score of B+ for its short-term care rating. This is a well above average grade in this area. Our short-term care scores are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This means a wide spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. It doesn't look like this nursing home submitted information on registered nurse or physical therapist staffing. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 6.8 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home.

The final category we assessed is nursing. We awarded this facility a D for the area of nursing, leaving this as the facility's weakest area. When calculating a facility's nursing rating, we weigh the amount of time nurses are caring for patients and the levels of training of those nurses. This facility provided a meager 0.2 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This number is significantly below average. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing ratings. This nursing home fared well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.