Lutheran Home

While we were not high on this facility overall, we gave it a B- in nursing. This is better than its overall rating. Our nursing rating is based on the facility's nurse staffing levels. We look at both the levels of training of those nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Finally, despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is typically an indicator that a facility has quality controls in place.

We also gave this facility a respectable grade in the area of short-term care, where it received a grade of B-. Short-term care scores are based on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a wide range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. In this facility's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than the typical facility. The hope is that this does not adversely impact the quality of care. The final item we assessed in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that just 6.5 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is actually below average.

This facility earned mediocre inspections in recent years. We awarded them a C in this category. Our inspection ratings are based on many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key thing to look for on these inspections. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to patient safety. This facility was assessed 5 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but fortunately none were category G through L deficiencies. This tells you that it dodged the more significant classes of deficiencies. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.

The last category we graded is long-term care. We gave this facility a C in that area. In crafting these long-term care grades, we quantify the nursing home's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. One of the criteria we considered after nursing hours is vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 92.765274 percent of its patients. Fortunately, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.