Gracedale - Northampton County
Gracedale Avenue, Nazareth PA 18064 · (610) 746-1900 · 93.51% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Gracedale - Northampton County is a senior living facility located in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. This city has a population of 24,073 people. Sporting an overall grade of C, this is likely a middle of the road nursing home. Based on our ratings, this nursing home has some redeeming qualities. The best part of this nursing home's profile is its exemplary inspection score. Inspection reports are discussed in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 688 Beds
CCRC :
Government - County
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While this facility's overall grade was decent, it really fared well in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our best scores. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection ratings. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being relatively insignificant. This place received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to cause an immediate risk to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home also was given a positive long-term care score. In fact, we gave it a B+ in that category, which is one of our more favorable scores. When facilities receive this kind of grade in long-term care it is typically a good sign for patient care and suggests that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses aids. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 98.08 percent of its patients, which is higher than most nursing homes. This place also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had just 1.64 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days.
Nurse Quality
Turning to another strength for this facility, it also earned an elite nursing score. We gave this facility a grade of D. When computing our nursing grades, we factor in both nursing hours and the training levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. To go along with its low totals in the area of nursing hours per resident, this facility also didn't perform as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in determining our nursing ratings. We looked at the percent of residents experiencing pressure ulcers and major falls. This place had more pressure ulcers and falls than the average facility. This may be a bad sign when you consider that many bed sores and falls are preventable with better nursing care. These statistics hurt this nursing home's nursing rating significantly.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility's least impressive category was short-term care, which is the final category we looked at. We gave it an abysmal F in this area. Despite several decent grades in other categories, this grade is nevertheless disappointing so we would like to to make a note of it. In the area of short-term care, we seek to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that just 26.2 percent of this facility's residents returned home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Gracedale - Northampton County Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of long-term residents who suffer from new or worsened pressure ulcers or bed sores. We factor in this statistic in computing both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint indicates the percentage of long-term patients that suffered a fall leading to severe injury. This is one of the statistics we use in computing our nursing ratings.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This tells you the percentage of long-term stay residents who suffered from urinary tract infections. UTI's may be an indication of a facility with lower levels of hygiene. Nevertheless, this statistic could also be skewed for certain facilities due to different reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were given antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic medications are prescribed to patients for a variety of conditions, such as cognitive disorders. Tragically, in some situations, increased usage of these drugs may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percent of patients prescribed antianxiety drugs. These drugs are used to treat residents experiencing depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients who are showing signs of depression. Some would argue this is a reliable measure of patient quality of life.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percent of long-term stay residents who were administered the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be fatal for nursing home residents, making these vaccines critical to patient health.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of patients who required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric tracks the percent of long-term care residents that retained mobility levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care. Avoiding hospitalizations is key to the physical well-being of nursing home patients.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the physical abilities of patients.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care. Avoiding emergency medical situations is one way to gauge the well-being of patients during rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percent of short-term stay patients that experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better