Lone Tree Post Acute

While this facility earned a decent overall score, its inspections grade is notably more impressive than its overall grade. Due to a strong health inspection report this year, it earned a strong score in that category with a B. Inspection scores account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this area typically have very few severe deficiencies. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This means that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

This facility also was awarded a strong long-term care grade. As a matter of fact, we gave it a grade of B in this area, which is one of our more favorable scores. When nursing homes receive this kind of grade in this category it is usually a good sign for patient care and suggests that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. In addition to assessing the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is far higher than the average nursing home. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Additionally, we also would like to point out that this facility received positive short-term care marks this year. We awarded them one of our more favorable scores in that area, with a grade of B. Short-term care scores are vital for individuals requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. This means a wide range of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this facility submitted information on registered nurse or physical therapist staffing. Finally, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 5.9 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Switching gears to our final area, this nursing home was awarded a decent nursing grade of B-. Our nursing rating analyzes the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the number of hours spent with patients. This place provides only 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a somewhat concerning figure as it is well below the national average. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility actually excelled in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. In fact, it scored well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. Many consider these areas to be good measures of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the quantity of hours of care offered.