Life Care Center

Nursing Home

Updated Sep 1, 2022 by Nick Reese

Historical Rating

See Rating Overview

176 Lincoln Ave,
Fitzgerald GA 31750

(229) 423-5621

59.16% estimated occupancy ¹

Life Care Center is one of just two facilities in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Our scoring system was not very kind to this facility, as we gave it an overall rating of F. Based on our ratings, this place is not a good fit for any prospective resident. Finally, inspections was the lone shining light in our review of this nursing home. We provide more information on this category below.

Quick Details

Accepts Medicare ¹
Accepts Medicaid ¹
No CCRC
Has Resident Council
No Family Council
For profit - Individual

Specialized Services

Speech Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Physical Therapy
Pharmacy

Registered Staff Hours

Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2021)

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Facility Inspections

While this facility's overall score was terrible, it actually performed pretty well in the area of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a B+ for that area, which is one of our better scores. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A few minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

Long-term Care Quality

Moving on to the area of long-term care, this nursing home was given a grade of just D in that area. Sadly, this wound up being one of its better grades. Nursing homes that receive this type of score in long-term care likely don't provide the kind of consistent 24/7 care that some other facilities offer. One of the factors we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. Frankly, we were a bit alarmed this facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to only 80.96591 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. This is its best feature in this category.

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Short-term Care Quality

Another issue was the F this facility received in the area of short-term care. Short-term care grades are crucial for patients looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a wide spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Based on its score in this category, we were not surprised to find that this nursing home is well below average in terms of the number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours offered to its residents based on the measures we assessed. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Nurse Quality

The final area we rated was nursing. Sadly, it received a lowly F in this area, which is a very poor grade. Our nursing rating assesses several components, however, the primary one is the level of nurse hours per patient per week. With a meager 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis, this place's nurse staffing levels were quite a bit below average. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This place performed well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

Rating Over Time

Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.

Life Care Center Quality Metrics

Minimizes Pressure Ulcers

In Life Care Center, 10.37% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers

This is the percent of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents staying in one position for too long. Better nursing protocols can limit the percentage of residents in a nursing home who sustain pressure ulcers.

Minimizes Serious Falls

In Life Care Center, 3.17% of Patients had Serious Falls

This indicates the percentage of residents that sustained a major fall. Falls leading to severe injury are considered to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . Falls resulting in injury are often caused by lower quality nursing care.

Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections

In Life Care Center, 3.19% of Patients had UTIs

This is the percent of patients that suffered from a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are routinely the result of poor nursing care. Closer supervision can limit the percentage of residents in a nursing home who suffer from UTI's. Note that this datapoint is affected by by the fact that nursing homes have incongruent reporting standards for infections.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication

In Life Care Center, 18.14% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication

This indicates the percentage of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. These drugs are used to treat a variety of medical conditions, including Alzheimer's or other dementias.

Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication

In Life Care Center, 21.34% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication

This figure tells you the percent of long-term care patients who are administered antianxiety medication. These drugs are typically given to residents experiencing depression or anxiety.

Managing Depression Among Residents

In Life Care Center, 5.28% of Patients

This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care patients who are showing depressive symptoms.

Appropriate Vaccine Usage

In Life Care Center, 93.36% of Patients

This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term patients that were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home residents, making these types of vaccines critical to patient care.