Medilodge of Holland

One of the reasons this place received a great overall grade is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. Nursing actually ended up being its best category. In that area, we awarded this nursing home an A. In calculating a nursing home's nursing score, we consider the amount of time nurses are with residents and the level of skill of those nurses. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility 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 frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

This nursing home also was given an impressive short-term care score. In fact, we awarded it an above average score of B+ in this category. In determining our short-term care ratings, we size up a facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This grade is generally a meaningful assessment of the nursing home's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 5.6 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

This nursing home also earned impressive government inspections in recent years. We gave them one of our higher grades in that area, with a B. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining these inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some deficiencies can be relatively minor. This facility received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors didn't consider any of these deficiencies to cause an immediate threat to patient health or safety. A couple relatively minor dings aren't necessarily something to panic about.

Switching gears to our fourth category, this facility received a C for long-term care, which is a decent score. For patients looking for a permanent residence rather than skilled nursing, long-term care grades are an important measure. On top of considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Thankfully, this facility provided the vaccine to 98.8 percent of its residents, which is a very respectable total. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.