Medilodge of Okemos

Although we graded this facility extremely poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing score this year. We gave it a B- in that category. We analyzed the levels of nurses working for the nursing home, in addition to the quantity of time the nurses spent with residents, in calculating our score in this area. This nursing home averages just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based measures, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours per resident, this facility performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is generally a reliable indicator that a place has sufficient quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a nursing home provides enough nurses aids to assist its residents.

This facility also didn't fare terribly in the category of short-term care. Indeed, we awarded it a B- in that category, which turned out to be among its better grades. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to evaluate indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. The facility provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. The last metric we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 6.3 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.

We wanted to point out this nursing home's inspection rating where it received a lowly F. This usually means we found some red flags on its inspections. For facilities with poor inspection scores, you should really scrutinize any severe deficiencies found on their inspection reports. This particular facility was assessed 7 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that suggest that they caused a risk to resident health or safety. Finally, CMS flagged this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. This is not what you want to see. We advise you to direct your search elsewhere.

Switching gears to our last area, this nursing home really did not perform very well in this category either. Due to a very poor grade of F in long-term care, this is about as bad as it gets. For prospective residents seeking a permanent residence rather than rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Thankfully, this facility administered the vaccine to 98.342545 percent of its residents, which is a very respectable statistic. To our surprise, this facility also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.