The Gardens at Tunkhannock

With an address in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, The Gardens at Tunkhannock is the lone option we identified there. Featuring an overall score of D, this is a subpar nursing home. Based on our assessment, this place may not be a great fit for most people. If you aren't deterred by this place's report card, you can continue reading to learn more about its category grades. Inspection grades are discussed in the next section.

Although we didn't rate this nursing home favorably overall, we did give it an excellent grade in the category of inspections, where it received an A-. Our inspection scores account for a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. You should avoid facilities with a bunch of deficiencies flagged. This facility was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none were considered severe. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies to be an imminent risk to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not necessarily the end of the world.

This nursing home's next best category ended up being its short-term care score, where it was awarded a B-. In the area of short-term care, we try to qualify indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Remarkably, this facility provides its residents with at least 50% more physical therapist hours per week than the average facility. Finally, we assessed the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. It outperformed the majority of nursing homes with 55.1 percent of its residents returning home.

We were stunned to find that this nursing home also excelled in the area of nursing. We gave it a score of D for that category, which is one of our highest scores. The nursing rating analyzes several components, however, the main consideration is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This facility provided just 3.1 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-based metrics in calculating our nursing grades. This nursing home was above average in two of the major areas we considered, with solid marks for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These metrics are typically reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care available.

Switching gears to the final category, we awarded this facility a grade of D for the area of long-term care. This was the nursing home's weakest category rating. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary objective is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 97.79614 percent of its patients, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this place was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had just 1.21 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.