Citadel Post Acute

Citadel Post Acute is a large nursing home in Mesa, Arizona. This facility was awarded an A- overall, which is one of our better ratings. This grade is higher than the city grade of A- in Mesa, which is also an impressive grade. This facility's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection grade, which we will address in the next section.

To pair with a favorable overall score, we awarded this place an A+ for our inspections rating. Inspection scores weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better scores in this category tend to have few severe deficiencies. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to note the fact that this facility received a strong score of A in our short-term care category. Short-term care ratings are important for people looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more skilled nursing services. This means a wide spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. This facility boosted its rating in this area by providing more than 50% more physical therapy hours to its patients than the average nursing home. The final statistic we assessed in this category is the number of residents that ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that it fared as well as just about any facility in Arizona in this area with 65.7 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.

This facility also was dominant in the category of long-term care, where it received a grade of A-. Few nursing homes received a better grade in this area. When facilities receive a score in this range in this category it typically means it's well-staffed and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 99.59514 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia is too frequently a life threatening illness for nursing home patients so we like it when a nursing home does not leave its residents vulnerable. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it 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.

The next category we graded was nursing. We gave this facility a decent score in that area, with a C. Although this isn't as favorable as many of this nursing home's other grades, it is still a middle of the pack score. Our nursing grade focuses on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We factor in both the levels of licensure of the nurses as well as the quantity of hours spent with residents. This nursing home averages 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, this facility was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls.