The Center at Lincoln

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our short-term care category. In calculating our short-term care scores, we scrutinize a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This rating is more often than not a solid measure of a facility's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the number of patients that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 6.6 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Turning to inspections, this facility excelled in that area, which is based on the nursing home's government inspections. In fact, we awarded it an A- for that category. Our inspection grades weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with better scores in this area typically have few severe deficiencies. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. There are several subcategories within this area. Many of these datapoints are tied to nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.5 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 nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The final area we graded was long-term care, in which this nursing home was awarded a grade of B. This actually ended up being this facility's weakest area. A facility could be doing a lot worse when it's poorest score still is superior to most facilities. For prospective patients in need of a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care is a very important category. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. We were not able to locate this place's vaccination data. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.