Rock River Gardens
3601 Sixteenth Avenue, Sterling IL 61081 · (815) 626-0233 · 71.57% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
With an address in Sterling, Illinois, Rock River Gardens is one of only three facilities in this city. Featuring an overall grade of D, this is a subpar nursing home. Unfortunately, this grade is not too far off the city grade for Sterling, which is a C. Nevertheless, you still ought to be able to do better The best thing we can say about this facility is that it did not receive any F's in any of the categories we assessed. More information about these categories is available below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 70 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
While this facility's overall grade was not a highlight, it received a slightly more favorable grade in the area of inspections. We awarded it a B- for that category, which is not bad. These inspection grades take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these factors by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This tells you that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing score. This turned out to be its second best category grade. In that area, we gave this nursing home an B-. Our nursing rating is largely based on a nursing home's nurse staffing. This facility provided just 1.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, nursing scores also consider quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is often a good indicator that a facility has quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a facility supplies enough nurses to assist its residents.
Short-term Care Quality
This facilities third best area is short-term care. We awarded it a grade of B- in this category. This is essentially a middle of the road grade in this category. In computing our short-term care ratings, we size up a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other licensed professionals. This category is typically a meaningful measure of the facility's rehabilitation. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was well below average.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home's least impressive area is long-term care, which is the last area we scored. For this area, we awarded this facility a grade of D. For residents in need of a permanent place to live as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care is an important category. One of the criteria we considered in addition to nursing hours was vaccinations. Fortunately, this nursing home administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.97 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Rock River Gardens Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term stay patients which suffer from new or worsened pressure ulcers. We have found that pressure ulcers are a reliable measure of the quality of nursing care a nursing home provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a fall which resulted in severe injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percent of long-term care residents who have experienced urinary tract infections. Although more infections could reflect poorly on a nursing home's hygiene protocols, it can be difficult to compare different facilities due to facilities having inconsistent reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term patients taking antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to confirm these medications are being used appropriately. In limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest that a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percent of patients who were given antianxiety drugs. These medications are generally prescribed to patients suffering from anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care residents demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percent of patients who received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percentage of patients that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. There is typically a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better