Kendal at Ithaca
2230 North Triphammer Road, Ithaca NY 14850 · (607) 266-5301 · 93.95% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Kendal at Ithaca is a small non-profit nursing home located in Ithaca, New York. It looks like this nursing home is one of the highest-graded facilities we assessed. In fact, it was given our most impressive score. We were so impressed with this facility that we ranked it in the top five percent of all facilities in the United States. One of the best aspects of this facility's remarkable report card is its inspection score. We discuss inspections in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 48 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating our inspection scores. One of those factors is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some can be quite minor. Although this nursing home had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Nurse Quality
We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. When calculating a nursing home's nursing score, we assess the amount of time nurses are seeing patients as well as the levels of training of those nurses. This place provides an incredible 4.8 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. Out of this total, many of those hours were provided by registered nurses, which is one of the most highly trained levels of nurses. On top of offering impressive levels of nursing care, this place also excelled in several of the quality measures we looked at. With less than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the state in this category. This is often a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls. Many pressure ulcers could be avoided by providing better nursing care and having a system of moving patients more frequently.
Long-term Care Quality
Adding to its high-end resume, this nursing home also received a strong long-term care grade, with a grade of A. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. One of the datapoints we considered on top of nurse's aid hours is vaccinations. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 96.49123 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a proven method to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations for the aged 65 and up population. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.
Short-term Care Quality
In our final category, this facility also was given a very strong short-term care score, with a grade of A. This finished off a rare straight A profile. Short-term care scores are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of skilled nursing services. This means a wide spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. This facility is the gold standard in terms of skilled nursing staffing. In fact, it supplied roughly 1.5 times as many registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than a typical facility. Finally, we looked at the number of residents that ultimately returned home from this facility. We found that 43.7 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Kendal at Ithaca Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents who suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing care can limit the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents that have had a fall which caused serious injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of residents that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many experts to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are often linked to a facility with lower levels of hygiene. However, this datapoint could be misleading for some nursing homes due to varying reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric is an indication of the percentage of long-term patients who are administered antipsychotic drugs. Increased usage of these drugs may suggest a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior in situations where such medications are not medically indicated. Nevertheless, some nursing homes need to rely on these drugs due to having more residents suffering from cognitive disorders.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients who were given antianxiety medications. Antianxiety medications are administered to patients experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percentage of patients who are showing signs of depression. High levels of depression could reveal a less hospitable environment.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients who were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for seniors, making these vaccines vital to patient safety.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term care patients that required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as getting dressed and taking a bath.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This indicates the percentage of patients that remained mobile levels over time. Optimizing mobility is usually a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you 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
Measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term resident care. Avoiding rehospitalizations during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the health of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This datapoint is a measure of the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care. Staying out of the emergency room is one way to measure patient care during rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of short-term stay residents that saw functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better