Clinton Gardens

Clinton Gardens is an average-sized government-owned nursing home in Clinton, Indiana. We gave this nursing home an overall grade of B. A grade of this caliber requires quality scores in most areas. Based on our assessment, this facility looks like a good fit for most people. This nursing home was stronger in some categories than others, but it did not have any weak links in any of the major areas discussed below. More information about these categories can be found below.

One of the reasons this turned out to be a quality facility is that it received a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections turned out to be its best category grade. In that category, we awarded it an A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection scores. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some can be relatively insignificant. This facility was hit with 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so favorably is that it was given a very impressive long-term care score. Indeed, long-term care turned out to be its second most impressive category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. In a long-term care environment, the primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 91.16719 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which happens to be somewhat less than we expected but still a reasonably acceptable figure. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.98 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility was awarded a favorable short-term care grade as well. We gave it one of our better grades in that area with a score of B. Our short-term care scores are arguably more critical for patients requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing. This includes not merely nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. The last measure we assessed in this category is the number of patients who eventually returned home from the nursing home. It performed better than most facilities in this area with 55.7 percent of its residents returning home. At most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.

Our next area is nursing, where we gave this facility a grade of B- in that area. We looked at the levels of nurses at the facility, in addition to the quantity of hours the nurses worked with residents, in determining our score in this area. According to CMS records, this place averaged 3.9 hours of nursing care per patient each day. Keep in mind that when we compute our nursing scores, we apply more weight to hours performed by nurses with a higher level of training. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in some quality-focused statistics. Specifically, we look at the percent of residents who sustained pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these statistics as predictive measures of the quality of nursing care, since better care tends to reduce these problems.