Pulaski Health Care Center

In addition to receiving a strong overall grade, this nursing home performed even better in our inspections category which is based on the nursing home's recent inspections. In fact, we gave it an A for that area, which is one of our best grades. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing these inspection grades. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being relatively minor. This facility was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies an immediate threat to patient safety or health. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in the industry.

This facility really excelled in the category of short-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A-. Very few facilities performed better in this category. Short-term care ratings are based in part on a facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a wide range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the facility and return home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B. Our nursing score consists of several components, most of which are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility Indiana in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of moving patients at least once a day.

Switching gears to our final area, this nursing home did not fare well. Due to a poor grade of F in that area, this is obviously this nursing home's weakest category. If you are seeking services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each nursing home's long-term care grades. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Thankfully, this nursing home gave the vaccine to 99.15967 percent of its patients, which is a very solid figure. Surprisingly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Sadly, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.