Gracedale - Northampton County is a very-large government-owned nursing home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. We awarded it an overall grade of C, which is a middle of the road grade. Based on our analysis, this place has some redeeming qualities. One of the major highlights of this facility's report card is its exemplary inspection grade, which is addressed in the next section.
Gracedale - Northampton County
- Nursing Home
Updated Jun 1, 2022 by Nick Lata
Quick Details
- Accepts Medicare 1
- Accepts Medicaid 1
- No CCRC
- Has Resident Council
- No Family Council
- Government - County
- Offers Hospice
- Offers Respite Care
- Offers Inpatient Rehab
Specialized Services
- Personal Care
- Medication Management
- Home Making
- Speech Therapy
- Palliative Care
- Dentistry
- Occupational Therapy
- Physical Therapy
- Nutritional Counseling
- Pharmacy
- Laboratory
- X-Ray
- Recreational Therapy
- Optometry
Registered Staff Hours
Facility Inspections
In addition to being a respectable facility overall, this place really excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned a grade of A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. These inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place was assessed 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to patient health or safety. A few minor deficiencies shouldn't stop you from considering a nursing home.
Long-term Care Quality
This facility also was given a strong long-term care grade. In fact, we gave them a grade of B in that category, which is one of our more favorable scores. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 90.2229 percent of its patients, which is somewhat less than we expected. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we like to see, we were pleased to find nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.
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Nurse Quality
Next we looked at nursing grades, where this nursing home received an F, which is a rock bottom grade. This area was definitely not a strength for this facility. Nursing scores are heavily correlated with levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in calculating our nursing scores. This nursing home performed well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.
Short-term Care Quality
The last area we graded was short-term care. It received an abysmal F for this category, which is a bottom of the barrel score. This is clearly a major disappointment. Short-term care scores are based in part on a nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a wide scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. This was not a strength for this facility. We found that just 3.6 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. At most nursing homes, about half of their patients are able to return home so this is well below average.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Gracedale - Northampton County Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 7.72% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This statistic gauges the percent of long-term residents who have pressure ulcers or bed sores. We factor in this statistic in computing our nursing grades.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 3.42% of Patients had Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of patients that sustained a major fall. Falls resulting in serious injury are considered to be a measure of the quality of nursing care at a nursing home. Falls which result in injury are routinely caused by poor nursing care.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 1.92% of Patients had UTIs
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term stay patients who suffered from UTI's. UTI's may be an indicator of a facility with worst hygiene practices. However, this datapoint may also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 15.49% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term stay residents who are prescribed antipsychotic medication. Increased usage of these drugs may indicate a nursing home is using these medications to control patient behavior in situations where such medications are not medically required. However, some nursing homes may need to rely on these medications due to an increased number of patients suffering from dementia.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 19.89% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric is an indication of the percentage of long-term residents taking antianxiety medications.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 3.23% of Patients
This tells you the percentage of patients showing signs of depression.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 88.5% of Patients
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay patients who were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home patients, making these vaccines vital to patient safety.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 15.28% Percentage of Patients
This metric measures the percentage of long-term patients that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as moving around and using the bathroom. Many in the industry would argue this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 23.65% Percentage of Residents
This is the percentage of residents who retained mobility levels over time. Preserving mobility can be a good sign for residents' well-being.
Hospitalizations
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 1.24 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of care. There is typically a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and the quality of long-term care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 23.65 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This tells you the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care.
Short-term Care: ER Visits
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 8.84 Percentage of Patients
This is a measure of the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. Staying out of the emergency room is one way to assess the well-being of patients during rehabilitation.
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
In Gracedale - Northampton County, 72.22% Percentage of Resident
This is a measure of the percent of short-term stay residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Many in the industry would argue that this is a reasonable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation performance.
Nearby Hospitals
- Easton HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 6.25 miles away250 South 21st Street Easton Pennsylvania 18042Proprietary(610) 250-4076
- St Luke's Hospital - Anderson CampusAcute Care Hospitals 6.67 miles away1872 St Luke's Blvd Easton Pennsylvania 18045Voluntary non-profit - Private(484) 503-3000
- St Luke's Warren HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 8.81 miles away185 Roseberry St Phillipsburg New Jersey 08865Voluntary non-profit - Other(908) 847-6700
- St Luke's Hospital BethlehemAcute Care Hospitals 9.37 miles away801 Ostrum Street Bethlehem Pennsylvania 18015Voluntary non-profit - Private(610) 954-4000
- Sacred Heart HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 11.2 miles away421 Chew Street Allentown Pennsylvania 18102Voluntary non-profit - Private(610) 776-4900
- Palmerton HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 14.71 miles away135 Lafayette Avenue Palmerton Pennsylvania 18071Voluntary non-profit - Other(610) 826-3141
- Lehigh Valley HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 15.11 miles away1200 South Cedar Crest Boulevard Allentown Pennsylvania 18105Voluntary non-profit - Private(610) 402-2273
- St Luke's Hospital - Monroe CampusAcute Care Hospitals 18.74 miles away100 St Luke's Lane Stroudsburg Pennsylvania 18360Voluntary non-profit - Private(272) 212-1000
Nearby Dialysis
- Fresenius Kidney Care - Easton3.91 miles away3501 Northwood Avenue Easton Pennsylvania 18045Dialysis Stations: 30 (610) 253-4278
- Davita - Palmer Dialysis Center5.78 miles away30 Community Drive Easton Pennsylvania 18045CMS Rating: 3 stars Dialysis Stations: 20 (610) 258-8855
- Fresenius Kidney Care - Bethlehem7.03 miles away2014 City Line Road, Suite 102 Bethlehem Pennsylvania 18017CMS Rating: 3 stars Dialysis Stations: 25 (610) 264-9660
- Davita - St. Luke's Bethlehem7.93 miles away1425 8th Avenue Bethlehem Pennsylvania 18018CMS Rating: 3 stars Dialysis Stations: 36 (484) 403-4304
- Fresenius Kidney Care - Slatebelt8.3 miles away525 East West Street Wind Gap Pennsylvania 18091Dialysis Stations: 12 (610) 863-7852
- Fmc Phillipsburg Dialysis Ctr9.33 miles away471 Center Street Kidney Treatment Center Phillipsburg New Jersey 08865CMS Rating: 4 stars Dialysis Stations: 12 (908) 454-7440
- Bio-Medical Applications of Pennsylvania, Inc9.43 miles away1005 Harvard Avenue Bethlehem Pennsylvania 18015Dialysis Stations: 17 (610) 997-8350
- Etowah Dialysis, LLC9.57 miles away1220 3rd Street Whitehall Pennsylvania 18052Dialysis Stations: 13 (610) 266-1706