Lewis & Clark Gardens

While this nursing home earned a decent overall rating, its inspections rating is notably better than its overall grade. Due to a strong inspection report this year, it earned one of our better scores in that area with a grade of B. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection scores. One critical factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these are relatively insignificant. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This means that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies shouldn't lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facility also excelled in the category of nursing, where it received an B. Few nursing homes performed better in this category. Nursing ratings are based in large part on quality and quantity of nursing care. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a patient more frequently.

The third highest area we awarded this nursing home in any category came in the area of long-term care, where we gave it a grade of B-. In calculating our long-term care grades, we analyze the assistance with daily living received by a facility's residents. Once we assessed the quantity of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. We were pleased to find that this nursing home vaccinated 96.09929 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Finally, this place was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Turning to the final category, this nursing home was awarded a grade of C in short-term care, which we consider to be a decent score. Short-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled nursing services. This includes a wide spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other forms of therapy. We found that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. In fact, it supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was well below average.