Colonial Columns Nursing Center
1340 East Fillmore Street, Colorado Springs CO 80907 · (719) 473-1105 · 95% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Colonial Columns Nursing Center is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the country. Sporting an overall grade of B, this looks like a fine option. The facilities in Colorado Springs received high scores across the board with a B+ city grade, making this one of the better places in Colorado to find a nursing home. As you will find below, this facility also performed just fine in our category grades. It is hard to find any major flaws in this place's profile.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 80 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
To pair with its strong overall score, we awarded this facility an A- for our inspections rating. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these end up being relatively minor. Unfortunately, we were not able to track down deficiency counts for this nursing home. We wish we had more information about this nursing home. Without having access to deficiency data, it was challenging to grade this nursing home in the area of inspections.
Nurse Quality
This facility is also strong in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. Nursing ratings are mostly associated with a nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 3.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some quality-based measures in this category. This facility fared well in some of the quality measures we assessed. For example, in terms of the number of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this place performed better than the national average. This is generally an indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided with better nursing care.
Short-term Care Quality
Turning to an additional strength for this nursing home, we gave them one of our stronger scores in our short-term care category as well, with a grade of B. In the area of short-term care, we try to assess measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We analyze a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. This nursing home is respectable both in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that it performed decently in this area, with 48.6 percent of its residents returning home.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we rated was long-term care, where this facility received a grade of B. This facility turned out to be relatively strong in all areas we analyzed. For prospective patients seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care grades are very important. One of the data points we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 78.96552 percent of its residents. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Colonial Columns Nursing Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also known as bed sores, are routinely the result of patients not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can limit the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay residents which have sustained falls which resulted in severe injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating nursing ratings.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This tells you the percentage of residents that have had a urinary tract infection. These infections are associated with poor hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic drugs are prescribed to patients for a variety of conditions, including dementia. Sadly, in some situations, increased usage of these drugs may indicate that a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antianxiety drugs. Antianxiety drugs are prescribed to residents experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is a measure of the percent of long-term residents who are demonstrating depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percent of long-term stay residents who have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be fatal for seniors, making these types of vaccines critical to patient care.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as dressing and taking a bath. Many would argue this is a measure of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term residents that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better