Northwoods Lodge

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ in short-term care. In the category of short-term care, we attempt to assess indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. This nursing home is substantially above the national average in terms of its quantity of both physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents. In fact, it provided about 50% more care per resident from both of these care providers than the average facility provided. These are generally good indicators of quality short-term care. Finally, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that it outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes in the nation in this area with 72.5 percent of its patients returning home.

In addition, this facility received high marks in the area of nursing. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. There are a variety of subcategories included in this category. Many of these datapoints are tied to the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This nursing home provided 4.8 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This was one of the better figures we found. Furthermore, we found that a significant percentage of this care was provided by registered nurses, which are highly skilled nurses. On top of offering high levels of nursing care, this place also excelled in the quality-based metrics we looked at. By way of illustration, it performed as well as any nursing home in the state in terms of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers. We look at these areas as predictive indicators of the caliber of nursing care provided.

We also wanted to alert you to the fact that this nursing home was awarded a high-end grade of A in our long-term care category. Facilities that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure patients are kept in good health. After we finished assessing the quantity of nursing care, we next considered the facility's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 92 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Lastly, this nursing home also received a virtually flawless government inspection report. As a result, it earned one of our highest grades in that category with an elite grade of A. With this impressive grade, this place is one of the few nursing homes in Washington to receive straight A's. Our inspection ratings are based on many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that score well in this category tend to have few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Although this facility had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.