St Johns Lutheran Home
901 Luther Place, Albert Lea MN 56007 · (507) 373-8226 · 64.05% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
With an address in Albert Lea, Minnesota, St Johns Lutheran Home is one of four facilities in this city. Featuring an overall grade of F, we consider this to be a very poor facility. Albert Lea received a city grade of B-, so there are other options in the city worth looking at. We would not blame you if you're ready to stop reading and find another facility. However, if you want to learn more about this facility's category grades, we will discuss nursing in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 79 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Church related
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of B- in that category. The nursing grade is based on several datapoints, however, the main consideration is the level of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home provides 4.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day. This is better than average. In determining our nursing ratings, we apply more weight to hours performed by more highly skilled nurses such as registered or licensed nurses. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these statistics. With fewer than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared very well in this subcategory.
Short-term Care Quality
Incredibly, we gave this nursing home a B- for its short-term care grade, which isn't a bad grade. In the category of short-term care, we attempt to evaluate indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. In this facility's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than a typical facility. Lastly, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. This proved to be more of a strength for this facility. In fact, we found that it outperformed the majority of nursing homes in the country with 53.1 percent of its residents returning home. This is a higher rate than most nursing homes.
Long-term Care Quality
We were also surprised to find that this nursing home received a somewhat respectable long-term care score this year. We gave it a B- in that area. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of looking at the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Unfortunately, its hospitalization rate was not quite as favorable. We found that this facility had 2.62 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days.
Facility Inspections
Turning our last category of inspections, this nursing home received a grade that's as bad as it gets. We weight this grade more heavily than other categories. You should pay close attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this poor of an inspection grade. We suggest you pay close attention to the severity of the deficiencies. This nursing home was assessed 9 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a risk 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.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
St Johns Lutheran Home 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
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is a measure of the percent of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry believe that this is a reasonable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better