Liberty Heights
12205 Gunstock Drive, Colorado Springs CO 80921 · (719) 481-5007 · 56.19% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Liberty Heights is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This city is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the country with has a total of 525,713 people. It looks like this nursing home is ranked among the best nursing homes we looked at. In fact, it received the top rating. As a matter of fact, this proved to be the top facility in the city. Headlining this facility's stellar report card is its short-term care score, which you can find in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 :
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
In addition to faring well in its overall grade, this facility received high marks in our short-term care rating as well. As a result, it received our highest grade in that category with an A+. Our short-term care grade is typically used to judge a facility's rehabilitation services. In order to offer high-end rehabilitation services, facilities generally need to feature higher levels of skilled nursing services. These types of services include registered nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists and other types of therapists. This facility excelled in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It offered more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the average nursing home. This is generally an excellent sign. The last datapoint we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that it fared as well as just about any facility in Colorado in this area with 67 percent of its patients returning home.
Facility Inspections
This nursing home also earned an A+ inspection grade, making it one of the rare nursing homes to receive multiple A+'s in our category grades. This grade is based on the facility's recent government inspections. An A+ in this area is one of the highest complements we can pay to a facility. Perhaps the most important factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies can be found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with better scores in this area most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find deficiency data for this facility. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Nurse Quality
This first-rate facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A+. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Our nursing grade analyzes several factors, however, the primary consideration is the level of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided 5.2 hours of nursing care per patient each day, which is among the highest totals in the country. A significant portion of those hours were provided by registered nurses, which are one of the most skilled levels of nurses. We were very impressed by these figures. On top of offering high levels of care, this nursing home also performed well in several of the quality-based metrics we looked at. For example, in terms of the percentage of its residents suffering falls resulting in major injury, this nursing home performed as well as any nursing home Colorado. Preventing major falls is generally an indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses and better safety protocols are employed.
Long-term Care Quality
In the final category we scored, this nursing home received a very strong grade of A in our long-term care category. With this score, the nursing home rounded out a straight A report card. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to patients. One of the factors we considered in addition to this nursing home's quality nursing hours is vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are a great way to avoid unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations for seniors. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Liberty Heights Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percent of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also called bed sores, are routinely caused by patients staying in one position for too long. Better nursing protocols limits 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 is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay patients which have had a fall resulting in severe injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but excessive numbers of falls may be a sign of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This tells you the percentage of patients that suffered from a urinary tract infection. These infections are sometimes associated with insufficient hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percentage of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic medications are given to residents for many conditions, including cognitive disorders. Tragically, in limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a nursing home is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term residents taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric measures the percent of long-term stay residents who are exhibiting depressive symptoms. Some experts argue that this is a measure of quality of life.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
Measures the percentage of long-term patients that were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home patients, making these vaccines vital to patient safety.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of residents that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the erosion of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of patients who were able to retain mobility over time. Retaining mobility is usually a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the health of patients.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percent of short-term care residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. High levels of autonomy with ADL's usually correlates with higher quality rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better