Meadow Lakes

One of the reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an impressive inspection rating. In fact, inspections is its best category grade. In that category, we gave it an A. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this area tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This place was hit with 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in the industry.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B in this area. Nursing grades are primarily based on the nursing home's nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

We also gave this nursing home a respectable score in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a B-. Short-term care grades are based on a nursing home's quantity of skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a vast spectrum of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last measure we considered in this category is the percentage of residents who ultimately returned home from the facility. We found that just 5.1 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

The next category we rated is long-term care. We gave this nursing home a C in that area. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 98.08743 percent of its patients, which is more than the average nursing home. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.