Life Care Center
176 Lincoln Ave, Fitzgerald GA 31750 · (229) 423-5621 · 65.38% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Life Care Center is located in Fitzgerald, Georgia, a city with a population of 18,687 people. Our rating system was not kind to this nursing home, as it received an overall score of F. If you are not happy with this facility's poor overall grade, you may find your options to be limited in Fitzgerald. The city has just one other nursing home. This facility's only redeeming feature was its inspection grade, which you can find additional information on below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 167 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it actually earned an impressive government inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our best grades in that area with an A-. Inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This means the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A few minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.
Long-term Care Quality
As it turns out, this nursing home only earned a D for its long-term care score, which turns out to be one of its more favorable category scores. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. After we finished looking at the amount of care provided by nurses, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. We were pleased to discover that this nursing home vaccinated 98.588234 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Finally, we looked at its number of hospitalizations. With 1.77 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this place did not fare quite as well.
Nurse Quality
We also wanted to point out that this nursing home received an F for its nursing grade. We assessed the levels of nurses at the facility, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses worked with patients, in calculating our grade in this area. This nursing home offered just 3 hours of nursing care per resident daily. In addition to its subpar nursing hour totals, this place also received suboptimal marks in many of the quality-based metrics we looked at in calculating our nursing scores. We found that more of this nursing home's patients suffered falls leading to serious injury.
Short-term Care Quality
The final area we scored is short-term care. This nursing home was given an abysmal grade of F in that area. Our short-term care ratings are based on a facility's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a vast spectrum of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. With its grade in this area, we were not surprised to discover that this nursing home was well below average in terms of the number of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the metrics we assessed. The last datapoint we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 17.5 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these poor statistics was damning for this nursing home's short-term care grade.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Life Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percent of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores, are routinely the result of patients not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols minimizes 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 statistic gauges the percent of long-term patients who had falls resulting in major injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but excessive numbers of falls could be an indication of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of patients who suffered from a urinary tract infection. These infections may be associated with inadequate hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This statistic measures the percentage of long-term care patients receiving antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to confirm these medications are being used appropriately. In some situations, increased usage of these drugs may mean a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percent of residents who were given antianxiety medications. These medications are generally prescribed to patients suffering from anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients who are demonstrating depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients that required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as taking medications and taking a bath. Some argue that this is a reasonable measure of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This indicates the percentage of patients that remained mobile levels over time. Retaining mobility is usually a great sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of care. There is typically a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and the quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better