Pioneer Lodge

In addition to receiving an elite overall grade, this nursing home also received an A+ inspection grade. This score is based on the facility's recent inspection reports. An A+ in this category is one of the highest complements we can offer a facility. Inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Sadly, this place received a category L deficiency, which is not what we expected given its inspection score. This category of deficiency means CMS uncovered a widespread deficiency placing resident health or safety in immediate jeopardy. In spite of this major red flag, other aspects of this facility's inspection report gave us some hope.

This nursing home also received a very strong long-term care grade. Indeed, this turned out to be its second strongest category grade. In that area, this facility received a grade of A. Nursing homes that receive this kind of score in this category typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are kept in good health. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its patients, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly is often a life or death health condition for nursing home patients so we strongly prefer when a nursing home doesn't take any chances. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

To complement its strong performance in other areas, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. There are numerous criteria within this category. Most of these subcategories relate to the quantity and quality of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures 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 frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving a patient more often.

The last area we assessed was short-term care. This facility was given a favorable nursing grade this year, with a grade of B. Although this was not as impressive as several of its other grades, this is nevertheless one of our more impressive grades in that area. In the category of short-term care, we seek to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this category is the number of residents that were able to return home from the facility. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.