Lutheran Senior Services at Meramec Bluffs
50 Meramec Trails Drive, Ballwin MO 63021 · (636) 861-0600 · 90.68% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Lutheran Senior Services at Meramec Bluffs is a small non-profit nursing home located in Ballwin, Missouri. With an overall rating of A+, this facility is ranked among the most impressive nursing homes we found. We couldn't find many negative things to say about this nursing home. Its ratings are just impeccable. Scroll down to find this place's category scores, which also impressed us. You really can't do any better than a straight A profile.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 58 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
In addition to receiving a great overall grade, this nursing home received an A+ for nursing. There are many factors included in this area. Many of the criteria reflect staffing levels. This particular facility provided 5.9 hours of nursing care per resident daily. This was one of the highest figures we found. In addition, we found that a significant portion of this care was provided by registered nurses, which are highly skilled nurses. Both of these statistics are impressive. On top of providing impressive levels of care, this nursing home was also above average in each of the major quality measures we assessed in this category. It performed well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.
Short-term Care Quality
We also wanted to alert you to the fact that this facility fared very well in our short-term care category. We awarded them an exemplary score of A+ in this area. In computing our short-term care grades, we look at a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This score is more often than not a meaningful assessment of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. This nursing home provides more services with physical therapists and registered nurses than most nursing homes we looked at. The final statistic we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Missouri in this area with 56.6 percent of its residents returning home. With most facilities, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Facility Inspections
Adding to an already impressive profile, this facility also received virtually flawless health inspections in recent years. As a result, we awarded it an A+ inspection grade. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this category most likely avoided the most severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
In the final area we rated, this nursing home was awarded great marks in the category of long-term care as well. Consequently, it received an A+. This rendered it one of an elite handful of facilities who received A+'s in all of our categories. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. While we determined this nursing home has an impressive quantity of nursing hours provided by nurses aids and other nursing staff, we found its vaccination rate to be somewhat slightly lower than we anticipated. It gave the pneumonia vaccine to just 85.85859 percent of its residents. This is one statistic we'd really like to see this nursing home improve on. While its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we had hoped, at least this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Lutheran Senior Services at Meramec Bluffs Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also referred to as bed sores, are often the result of patients staying in one position for too long. Better nursing care reduces 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 metric gauges the percentage of long-term stay residents that suffered falls resulting in serious injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but high rates of major falls could be an indicator of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of patients who sustained a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be an indicator of nursing care at a nursing home. UTI's are routinely the result of worse hygiene protocols. However, this datapoint may also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs may be helpful for many residents, it is important to make sure these medications are being used appropriately. In some situations, excessive reliance on these medications may mean a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients given antianxiety drugs. Antianxiety medications are prescribed to residents suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of patients who are demonstrating depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of residents that needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of needing for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the decline of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
Measures the percent of long-term care patients that were able to retain mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care. There is generally a correlation between reduced emergency room visits and the overall quality of care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percentage of short-term stay residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better