Medilodge of Port Huron

We also want to note that this nursing home excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an A+ in this category. The nursing grade is based on several datapoints, however, the main one is the number of nurse hours spent with patients. This facility provided 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 place the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving residents more often.

Adding to an already impressive profile, this facility also received virtually flawless health inspections in recent years. As a result, we awarded it an A+ inspection grade. Arguably the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's inspection reports. Places with better grades in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Contributing to its strong assessment, this nursing home also was awarded a dominant short-term care grade, with a grade of A-. With our short-term care rating, we attempt to forge a valuable gauge for rehabilitation. In doing so, we look at a facility's level of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we assessed the number of residents who returned home from this nursing home. We found that 4.9 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Moving on to our last category, this nursing home was given an excellent long-term care rating. In fact, we gave it a grade of B+ in this area, completing one of our better report cards. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. After considering the quantity of nursing care, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is often a deadly ailment for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a facility does not leave its residents vulnerable. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.