Gino J Merli Veterans Center
401 Penn Avenue, Scranton PA 18503 · (570) 961-4300 · 93.87% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Gino J Merli Veterans Center is located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The city has a multitude of options. Featuring an overall score of D, this is a well below average nursing home. Unfortunately, this grade isn't too far off the city grade for Scranton, which is a C. Nevertheless, you still may be able to do better More information on this nursing home's category grades is available below. Its best category was inspections, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 196 Beds
CCRC :
Government - State
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While we did not rate this nursing home well overall, we would like to point out its decent inspection reports in recent years. We gave it a relatively respectable grade of B- in this area. We would argue that one of the most critical factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. In this regard, we especially look at the severity of the deficiencies. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.
Nurse Quality
We awarded this facility a respectable grade in the area of nursing as well, with a grade of B-. Our nursing rating is primarily tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. According to CMS records, this nursing home averaged 3.9 hours of nursing care per resident daily. Keep in mind that when we calculate our nursing scores, we add more weight to hours performed by nurses with a higher level of skill. Lastly, we also looked at a few nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these statistics. With less than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed well in this datapoint.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home's next most favorable area was short-term care. We gave it a B- in this area. This is essentially a middle of the road grade in this area. In the category of short-term care, we seek to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. One reason for this facility's strong score in this category is that it provides more care with registered nurses to its residents than the average nursing home. The final metric we looked at in this area is the number of residents who were able to return home from the facility. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.
Long-term Care Quality
Our next area is long-term care, in which we gave this nursing home a grade of B- in that category. For patients in need of a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are very important. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 99.265785 percent of its residents. This nursing home also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had just 1.54 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Gino J Merli Veterans Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This datapoint tells you the percent of long-term care patients who suffered from new or worsened pressure ulcers . We factor in this statistic in computing our nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents who sustained a fall which resulted in major injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percentage of residents who sustained a urinary tract infection. These infections are sometimes associated with poor hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percentage of residents prescribed antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs may be vital to many residents, it is important to make sure these medications are being used appropriately. In some cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use 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 tells you the percent of patients given antianxiety medications. Antianxiety medications are prescribed to residents suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay residents who are exhibiting depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This metric measures the percent of long-term patients that were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This metric measures the percent of long-term residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as dressing and using the bathroom. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable 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 percentage of long-term residents who remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This indicates the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of care. There is typically a correlation between having fewer hospitalizations and the quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
Measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term resident care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better