Pruitthealth - Fitzgerald
185 Bowen's Mill Highway, Fitzgerald GA 31750 · (229) 423-4361 · 78.07% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
With an address in Fitzgerald, Georgia, Pruitthealth - Fitzgerald is one of a mere two nursing homes in this city. This nursing home was given an overall score of F. Based on our assessment, you would be better off to steer clear of this facility. More information on this nursing home's category grades may be found below. Its best category was inspections, which is discussed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 78 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While this facility's overall grade was as bad as it gets, it actually didn't perform terribly in the area of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B- for that category, which is one of our better scores. We believe that one of the most critical factors in assessing an inspection report is deficiencies. In this regard, we especially focus on the severity of the deficiencies. Although this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Lastly, this nursing home was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. This is generally a really bad sign. We would never recommend this facility.
Short-term Care Quality
Surprisingly, we awarded this nursing home a grade of C for our short-term care grade, which is not a bad grade. In forming these short-term care ratings, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to formulate a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of different nursing homes. In this nursing home's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than the average facility. The hope is always that this does not adversely affect the quality of care. The last metric we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. It was respectable in this metric with 46.1 percent of its residents returning home.
Long-term Care Quality
Another unfortunate development is the F this facility received in the area of long-term care. In a long-term care setting, the primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Thankfully, this facility provided the vaccine to 97.65258 percent of its patients, which is an above average percentage. To our surprise, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.
Nurse Quality
The last category we scored is nursing. This nursing home received a rock bottom grade of F in that category. The nursing rating assesses a handful of components, but the primary consideration is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 3.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is slightly below average. In addition to performing poorly in terms of nursing hours, this facility also had terrible scores in the quality-based measures we looked at in determining our nursing ratings. For starters, we looked at the percentage of residents experiencing pressure ulcers and major falls. This place was at more than double the national average in both of these metrics. This is quite alarming when you consider that many bed sores and falls are believed to be preventable with better nursing care. This ended up sealing this facility's fate of earning a very poor nursing grade.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Pruitthealth - Fitzgerald Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic gauges the percentage of long-term care patients who suffer from pressure ulcers . We bake this statistic into our nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This metric gauges the percent of long-term stay residents that have sustained a fall which caused major injury. We use this statistic in calculating our nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care residents who suffered from UTI's. Although a higher rate infections may reflect poorly on a nursing home's nursing care, it is problematic to compare different nursing homes due to differing reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percentage of patients who were given antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic drugs are administered to residents for a variety of medical conditions, such as dementia. Tragically, in some cases, increased usage of these drugs may mean that a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percent of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. Antianxiety drugs are prescribed to patients suffering from depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
Measures the percentage of long-term stay residents who are exhibiting signs of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term care residents that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percent of patients that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of needing for assistance with ADL's may indicate erosion of a resident's medical condition.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term stay patients that maintained mobility. Many in the industry argue that mobility is critical to residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term patient care. There is a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This indicates the percent of short-term residents who saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Higher levels of autonomy with activities of daily living typically correlates with successful rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better