Buffalo Valley Lutheran Villag
189 East Tressler Boulevard, Lewisburg PA 17837 · (570) 524-2221 · 96.96% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Buffalo Valley Lutheran Villag is one of only two available facilities in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. It looks like this is a fine facility. We gave this it an overall grade of B+, which is very favorable grade. Based on our ratings, this nursing home has quite a bit going for it. Keep reading to see this facility's category scores, which are also quite good. It is hard to poke holes in this place's profile.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 102 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections rating. Arguably the most important factor we consider in determining our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities with better scores in this area typically dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.
Short-term Care Quality
Among this nursing home's other achievements is its superb short-term care grade. It received one of our more impressive grades in that category, with a score of A-. Short-term care grades are commonly employed to gauge a nursing home's performance with rehabilitation. To offer highly rated rehabilitation services, facilities generally must offer higher levels of highly skilled nursing. These types of services include registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. When we looked at this facility's physical therapist hours, we found it offered more hours of physical therapy per day to its residents than most nursing homes. The last metric we looked at in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Pennsylvania in this area with 60.4 percent of its residents returning home.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. We looked at the skill-level of nurses employed by the facility, in addition to the quantity of time the nurses were with patients, in determining our grade in this category. This particular nursing home provided 4.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which was among the highest totals we found. Finally, this nursing home also excelled in the quality-based metrics we looked at. For example, it performed as well as any facility the nation in terms of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these datapoints as good indicators of the caliber of nursing care being provided.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we looked at was long-term care. This facility was given a very good long-term care score this year, with a grade of B. This facility truly does not have any weak categories. When facilities receive this kind of score in long-term care it is a good sign for resident care and indicates that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses aids. After looking at the impressive nursing hours provided by this nursing home, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 99.34211 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. This combination proved to be successful as this facility also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Buffalo Valley Lutheran Villag Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are damage to the skin resulting from staying in one position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term stay patients who have suffered a fall leading to severe injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but high rates of falls resulting in injuries may be an indicator of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This figure measures the percentage of long-term residents who suffered from urinary tract infections. UTI's could be an indication of a facility with worst hygiene practices. Nevertheless, this datapoint can be skewed for some facilities due to different reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This figure gauges the percentage of long-term patients taking antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications play an important role in caring for many residents, it is important to make sure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients who were given antianxiety medications. These drugs are generally used to treat patients experiencing anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percentage of patients who are exhibiting depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care residents that were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of patients that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the erosion of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric measures the percent of long-term care residents who were able to retain mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are hospitalized 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 thousand days of short-term care. There is a correlation between reduced hospitalizations and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures 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
Measures the percentage of short-term residents that experienced functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better