Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center - Lee Campus

One of the many reasons this place ended up being a quality nursing home is it earned an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this very important area. Our inspection scores weigh several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category usually have few severe deficiencies. While this place had some deficiencies on its report, none of them were serious 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 fared very well in our short-term care rating. We awarded them an impressive score of A+ in this area. In calculating our short-term care ratings, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The objective is to formulate a tool for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last item we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients that who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. We found that 6.6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

We also would like to note the fact that this facility was awarded a top-shelf grade of A in our long-term care category. For prospective residents in need of a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination data. We weren't able to locate information on vaccination rates. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping 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 figure.

In the final area, we awarded this nursing home an A+ for our nursing score. This completed a very strong profile. Our nursing grade is based on the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of skill of the nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.