Luther Oaks

The main reason this turned out to be a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection score. In fact, its inspection score was far superior to its overall score. In our inspections category, we gave this facility a grade of A-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection grades. One critical factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these can be quite insignificant. While this facility had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This tells you that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Remember that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in this industry.

Additionally, we gave this facility a B+ in our short-term care category. This is one of our more impressive scores. In determining our short-term care grades, we look at the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly trained professionals. This grade is often a useful assessment of the facility's rehabilitation services. We weren't able to find information about this nursing home's registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The final measure we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

This facility's next best category grade came in the area of nursing. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of B-. In determining our nursing ratings, we factor in both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This nursing home provided just 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared with most other facilities. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility surprisingly excelled in some of the quality measures we assessed. In fact, it performed well in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.

This facility's weakest area is long-term care, which is the last area we scored. In this area, we awarded this nursing home a grade of just D. For prospective residents in need of a permanent residence as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care grades are a key measure. After looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination statistics. We were optimistic to learn that this facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia. To our surprise, this facility also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.