Benchmark Senior Living at The Commons in Lincoln

On top of faring well overall, this facility earned nearly flawless government inspections. As a result, it earned one of our highest scores in that category with an A+. Perhaps the most significant factor we consider in determining our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this category most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or 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.

Adding to its high-end assessment, this nursing home also was awarded a strong short-term care score, with a grade of A. Short-term care grades are based on the nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a broad range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 6.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

This nursing home also was given a top-shelf long-term care grade. This actually is its third strongest category score. In that category, this facility received a grade of A. When facilities receive this kind of grade in this category it is usually a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. After assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is far higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The last area we looked at is nursing, in which this facility was given a grade of B. Although this turned out to be its poorest category rating, this is still a favorable score. When computing our nursing grades, we assess both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the skill levels of the nurses. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.