Luther Manor Communities

Luther Manor Communities is an average-sized non-profit facility located in Dubuque, Iowa. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of B. A grade of this caliber requires quality marks in most areas. Even in a city with 10 other nursing homes, this one ought to be a perfectly acceptable selection. This facility was stronger in some categories than others, but it didn't have any weak links in any of the major categories. More information about these categories can be found below.

One of the reasons this place is a quality facility is that it earned an impressive inspection score. Inspections turned out to be its best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A+. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining our inspection scores. One critical factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being relatively insignificant. This place received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors didn't consider any of these deficiencies to cause an imminent threat to resident safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

This facility was awarded high scores in the area of long-term care as well. Indeed, it received one of our most dominant scores in that category with a score of A-. Facilities that receive this kind of score in this category typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure patients are kept in good health. After we finished looking at the amount of nursing care, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 93.548386 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Finally, we looked at its number of hospitalizations. We found that this place had 2.38 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days.

Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B. Our nursing rating looks at the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We weigh both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the quantity of hours spent with residents. This nursing home averages 3.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures 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 nursing home the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a system of turning a resident more often.

The last area we assessed was short-term care. This facility received a grade of C in the category. In determining our short-term care ratings, we size up a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This grade is generally a fair measure of a facility's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, this nursing home offers both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities offer both. The final datapoint we looked at in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 34.8 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.