Bethel Lutheran Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

In addition to receiving a strong overall score, this nursing home performed well in our nursing category. In fact, we gave it a grade of A- for that category, which is one of our highest scores. There are several subcategories within this category. Many of the subcategories relate to the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well in the area of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Additionally, this facility also received favorable long-term care grades this year. Indeed, we gave it one of our more favorable scores in that category, with a score of B+. Nursing homes that excel in this category typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. After we finished looking at the amount of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 99.19355 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly condition for nursing home patients so we prefer when a facility does not leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

This facility also was given an impressive short-term care score. Indeed, we gave it an above average score of B in this area. Our short-term care scores are meaningful for individuals 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 occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 4.5 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

Finally, we also gave this facility a grade of B- for our inspections rating. This facility didn't have any major weaknesses. These inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this place had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in the industry.