The Citadel of Sterling
105 East 23rd Street, Sterling IL 61081 · (815) 626-4264 · 64.46% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
The Citadel of Sterling is a facility located in Sterling, Illinois. This city has 21,934 people. This nursing home is a very respectable facility, with an overall grade of B. With no A rated facilities in the city, this is actually the highest graded nursing home in Sterling. The best aspect of this nursing home's strong profile is its inspection reports. Inspection reports are discussed in the next section
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 121 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the reasons this ended up being a quality facility is that it received a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections turned out to be its best category. In this area, we gave it a grade of A. Inspection grades weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection report. One key criteria we weigh heavily is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area usually have few severe deficiencies. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
We also awarded this nursing home a score of A- for our long-term care grade. Facilities that receive this kind of score in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are kept in good health. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 98.8 percent of its residents, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is too frequently a dangerous illness for nursing home patients so we prefer when a nursing home doesn't leave its residents vulnerable. The last statistic we looked at is the facility's hospitalization rate. Here we found that this place had 2 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is middle of the pack in this area.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility's third highest category ended up being short-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. In determining these short-term care ratings, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The goal is to formulate a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. We were pleased to find that this nursing home employs both registered nurses and physical therapists. The same can't be said for all nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who returned home from this nursing home. We found that it also performed well in this metric with 56 percent of its residents returning home. Most facilities are below 50 percent in this statistic.
Nurse Quality
The final area we rated is nursing, proved to be this nursing home's weakest category. We awarded this facility a grade of D in this category. This really was one of the couple of weak points of a quality profile. We weighed the licensure of nurses employed by the nursing home, in addition to the quantity of time those nurses were with patients, in computing our grade in this area. This facility provided just 2.9 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. Finally, we also looked at some quality measures in computing our nursing grades. This place was above average in two of the metrics we considered, with good scores for avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
The Citadel of Sterling Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term stay residents that have new or worsened pressure ulcers. Many experts believe that pressure ulcers are a solid indicator of a facility's nursing care quality.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This statistic indicates the percent of long-term care residents who experienced falls resulting in serious injury. Falls can happen for a variety of reasons, but high rates of major falls may be a sign of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of patients that suffered from a urinary tract infection. UTI's are routinely associated with facilities with lower levels of hygiene. Additional nurse staffing can minimize the percentage of residents in a nursing home who suffer from UTI's. Note that this datapoint is affected by by the fact that nursing homes have incongruent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percentage of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic drugs are given to patients for a variety of conditions, including cognitive disorders. Tragically, in limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percent of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. These medications are typically used to treat residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This indicates the percentage of residents who are demonstrating symptoms of depression. High levels of depression may be an indicator worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of patients that have received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percent of residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the deterioration of a resident's health.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percentage of patients that retained mobility levels over time. Optimizing mobility can be a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the health of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric measures 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 datapoint measures the percent of short-term stay residents who experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry argue that this is a reliable measure of rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better