Medilodge of Howell

Although we were not high on this facility overall, we gave it a B- in nursing. This score is more respectable than its overall score. Nursing grades are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This facility provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility surprisingly excelled in some of the quality measures we looked at. In fact, it scored well in terms of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.

This nursing home's next best category was its short-term care score, where it was given a grade of B-. In determining these short-term care ratings, we look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our purpose is to formulate a tool for comparing the rehabilitation services of different facilities. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It supplied fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. The last statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 4.9 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.

This facility's next most favorable area was its long-term care grade, where it was awarded a grade of C. In computing our long-term care grades, we assess the assistance with daily living offered to a facility's patients. Once we finished looking at the amount of nursing care, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to learn that this facility vaccinates 94.93088 percent of its residents for pneumonia. This place keeps its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In our final area of inspections, this nursing home received an F in this area. Since this information is compiled by independent government inspectors, we heavily weight poor results in this category. You should pay close attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this bad of an inspection score. We recommend you pay close attention to the severity of the deficiencies. This facility had 4 deficiencies by CMS. The only favorable thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a risk to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.