The Estates at Bloomington

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received a much better grade for nursing than it received overall. In fact, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A-. Our nursing grade is based on the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We weigh both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the number of hours spent with residents. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can generally be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Another one of this facility's more impressive category scores came in the area of short-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of B+. It actually outpaced most facilities in this category. In the category of short-term care, we strive to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We analyze a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of patients that ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 4.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Next we looked at this nursing home's inspection grade This grade is based on the facility's recent government inspections. We awarded it a C in this category. This is basically a middle of the pack score in this category. Our inspection grades are tied to many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key item to look for on these inspections. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to the well being of residents. This facility was hit with 8 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but none were in any of the categories labeled G through L. This means it avoided the more significant classes of deficiencies. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.

Switching gears to the next category, we gave this facility a D in our long-term care category. This was the facility's least impressive category grade. Of course, this score hurt the nursing home's overall profile to a certain degree. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is often a bad sign for resident care and it may mean that the place is not as well-staffed. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 88.5 percent of its residents. This is quite a bit below the national average. Surprisingly, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.02 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. This is its best score in this category.