Heisinger Lutheran Home

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this area tend to have few severe deficiencies. 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.

This facility received a favorable long-term care grade as well. We gave it one of our higher scores in that area with a score of B+. When facilities receive this type of score in this category it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. One of the datapoints we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 95.882355 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a great way to minimize unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for the aged 65 and up population. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

This facility is also above average in the area of short-term care, where it received a grade of B+. It outpaced most facilities in this category. Our short-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of skilled nursing services. This means a wide scope of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

Turning to our final area, this nursing home received an extremely favorable nursing score. Even though this is not as good as many of its other category grades, this remains one of our stronger grades a facility can receive. Our nursing score is largely tied to the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a protocol of turning a patient more frequently.