Guardian Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center
147 Old Newport Street, Nanticoke PA 18634 · (570) 735-7300 · 87.81% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Guardian Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center is an average-sized facility in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. With an overall grade of F, we consider this to be a very poor facility. Based on our analysis, this facility is not a good fit for anyone. More information on this facility's category grades is available below. Its best category was inspections, which is addressed in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 110 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable inspection report this year. As a result, it received a decent grade in that category with a score of B-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be quite insignificant. This particular nursing home received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report. Another red flag is that CMS cited this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. Hopefully, its performance improves in the future, but until then we simply can't recommend this facility.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home also didn't fare too badly in the category of short-term care. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B- in that area, which happens to be among its more favorable grades. Short-term care ratings are meaningful for patients requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more highly-skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a wide spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, we found that this nursing home provided respectable levels of physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. In fact, we found that it outperformed the majority of nursing homes in the nation with 51.6 percent of its patients returning home. This is a higher rate than most facilities.
Long-term Care Quality
We were also surprised to learn that this nursing home received a reasonably solid long-term care grade this year. We awarded it a grade of C in this area. In computing our long-term care grades, we look at the facility's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Fortunately, this nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is an above average percentage. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. With 1.99 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this place is not too far off the national average.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home's least impressive area was nursing, which is the final area we scored. In this category, we gave this facility a D. When computing our nursing grades, we factor in both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which is slightly below the national average. In addition to receiving below average marks for nursing hours, this place was less impressive in some of the quality-based measures we looked at in computing our nursing scores. We looked at the percent of patients suffering pressure ulcers and found this facility was at approximately 150 percent of the national average in this metric. This is likely a bad sign when you consider that many pressure ulcers are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. Unfortunately, this statistic really dragged down this facility's nursing grade substantially.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Guardian Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage due to staying in one position for too long.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percentage of residents that suffered from a major fall. Falls leading to major injury are considered by many experts to be a measure of nursing care . Falls leading to injury are routinely the result of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term residents that had UTI's. While more of these infections may reflect poorly on a nursing home's nursing care, it can be problematic to compare between nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This statistic indicates the percent of long-term patients taking antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs serve an important medical purpose, it is important to confirm these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited situations, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean that a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percentage of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. These medications are commonly prescribed to residents experiencing depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percent of patients who are demonstrating symptoms of depression. High levels of depression could indicate lower quality care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term care residents who were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percentage of patients that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's may indicate decline of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients that were able to retain mobility. Many believe that the ability to move around is critical to patients well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This datapoint measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percent of short-term residents who experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better