Medicalodges Pittsburg

One reason this proved to be a quality nursing home is that it earned a very impressive short-term care rating. In fact, this turned out to be its best category. In that area, we awarded this nursing home a B+. Our short-term care scores are probably most critical for individuals in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who ultimately returned home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Adding to its impressive profile, this place also excelled in the category of nursing. In fact, we gave it an B+ for that category. Our nursing rating is mostly based on a facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this nursing home 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 nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving residents more frequently.

This facility earned a grade of B for its inspections rating. This is an above average score in this area. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this category typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This facility was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe. This indicates that the inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies an imminent risk to resident safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in the industry.

Our next area is long-term care, where we awarded this facility a grade of B- 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. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination statistics. We were a bit worried that this facility vaccinated a relatively low 77.5 percent of its patients for pneumonia. On a more positive note, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.