St Luke Lutheran Nursing Home is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 2003-07-07. Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing care (typically up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital stay). Medicaid covers long-term care for residents who meet financial eligibility requirements. Contact the facility at (712) 262-5931 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

St Luke Lutheran Nursing Home holds an overall CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) rating of 2 out of 5 stars. This is made up of three components: Health Inspection (1★), Staffing (5★), and Quality of Resident Care (4★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 72.5/100, placing it #7128 of 14703 facilities nationally and #178 of 390 in Iowa. Star ratings are a useful starting point, but the composite score and individual sub-ratings give a more complete picture for families comparing facilities.

Each resident at St Luke Lutheran Nursing Home receives a reported average of 4 hours 1 minute of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 53 minutes; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 38 minutes; Nurse Aide — 2 hours 31 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 3 hours 25 minutes per resident per day. The CMS Staffing Rating for this facility is 5 out of 5. The national average for total nursing hours is approximately 3.5 hrs/day. Total nursing staff turnover is 47.7%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

In the current reporting period, the facility received 2 fine(s) totaling $90,076. 14 substantiated complaints were recorded across the 5-year period — families should request details from the facility or review CMS inspection findings. There were 1 Medicare payment denial(s) in the current period. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 2 fine(s) totaling $90,076, and 1 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 3. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 121.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, St Luke Lutheran Nursing Home ranks 7128th out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 72.5/100), placing it in the above average nationwide. Within IA, it ranks 178th out of 390 nursing homes. In Spencer, it ranks 1st out of 2 facilities. Among facilities sharing its ZIP code, it ranks 1st of 2. For 2026 staffing: total nurse hours rank #4,727 nationally and RN hours rank #2,895 nationally (#93 in IA). Our composite quality score of 72.5/100 weighs health inspections, quality of resident care, staffing hours, compliance record, and five-year performance trends — giving a more complete picture than CMS star ratings alone, which can place hundreds of facilities in the same 5-star bucket. To browse and compare all nursing homes in Spencer, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/iowa/spencer/