Good Shepherd Home-Bethlehem

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this nursing home also performed well in our inspections category, where it received a grade of A+. Very few nursing homes fared as well in this area. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection grades. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these can be quite insignificant. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. Nursing grades are largely tied to a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility Pennsylvania in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving a resident at least once a day.

This nursing home also was awarded a top-shelf short-term care score. This actually is this nursing home's third strongest category grade. In that category, this facility received a score of A. Our short-term care ratings are crucial for residents looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing. This includes a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the number of patients that ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

In the final area, we awarded this facility an A+ for our long-term care grade. This wrapped up a very impressive report card. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 68.77637 percent of its residents. This is somewhat less than we were hoping for. While its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we hoped for, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.