Michigan Masonic Home

Although we didn't give this nursing home a good overall grade, we actually gave it a strong grade in the area of nursing, where it earned a B+. This is better than most facilities in this area. In calculating our nursing ratings, we factor in both staffing levels and the levels of licensure of those nurses. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This nursing home performed very well in the area of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Additionally, we also would like to point out that this facility was awarded strong short-term care marks this year. We awarded them one of our more favorable scores in that category, with a grade of B. This proved to be the facility's second best score. In computing these short-term care scores, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final measure we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 4.5 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

Sadly, this facility only earned a grade of D for its long-term care grade, which is not a very good score. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary objective is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. Once we finished looking at the amount of nursing care, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination records. We were optimistic to discover that this facility vaccinated 99.511 percent of its residents for pneumonia. To our surprise, this facility also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had just 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.

Turning our final category of inspections, this facility received an abysmal grade. We weight this grade more heavily than other categories. You should pay close attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this poor of an inspection score. We recommend you pay close attention to the level of severity of the deficiencies. This particular facility was hit with 3 deficiencies by government inspectors. The only favorable thing we can say is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a risk to resident safety or health. Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that this facility was assessed large government fines recently amounting to more than $100,000. This typically suggests that a facility's bad track record has been an issue for more than one year.