Medilodge of Kalamazoo

We also wanted to point out that this nursing home has earned nearly flawless inspections in recent years. We awarded them an A in this category. Our inspection grades account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area usually have few of these severe deficiencies. While this place had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This tells you CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple relatively minor dings aren't necessarily the end of the world.

This nursing home also received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, this turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of A. Our nursing score is mostly based on a facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this facility 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 country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving a patient at least once a day.

We also wanted to alert you to the fact that this nursing home received a first-rate score of A- in our short-term care category. In determining our short-term care ratings, we quantify the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The purpose is to create a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we considered in this category is the number of residents that eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

The final area we scored is long-term care. This nursing home received an above average long-term care rating in our assessment, with a B-. While this was not nearly as impressive as many of its other scores, this is still a respectable score for this area. Long-term care ratings are based in part on the nursing home's volume of care. This means a broad spectrum of personal care services, ranging from assistance with activities of daily living to routine healthcare services. After we finished assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses, we next considered the facility's vaccination records. We were pleased to discover that this facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.