Medilodge of Portage

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its best category. In that category, we awarded this facility an A. Our nursing rating assesses the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We look at both the levels of skill of those nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving residents more frequently.

This nursing home fared well in the area of short-term care. In fact, we gave it a score of A for that category, which is one of our best scores. In the area of short-term care, we seek to assess indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who returned home from this facility. We found that 5.3 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

We also awarded this nursing home a middle of the road score in the area of long-term care, where it received a grade of C. For prospective patients seeking a permanent place to live as opposed to rehabilitation, long-term care is a very important category. Once we assessed the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 99.375 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is better than the average nursing home. This nursing home also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

Lastly, turning to our inspection category, we gave this nursing home a C. Our inspection grade is based on the nursing home's government inspection reports. While this is not a bad grade, it is this nursing home's weakest area. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. This nursing home was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were category G through L deficiencies. This means that CMS didn't consider any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent threat to resident safety or health. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.