Jefferson Community Health & Life Gardenside is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 2009-10-01. 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 (402) 729-5220 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

Jefferson Community Health & Life Gardenside holds an overall CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) rating of 5 out of 5 stars. This is made up of three components: Health Inspection (5★), Staffing (5★), and Quality of Resident Care (5★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 92.2/100, placing it #350 of 14703 facilities nationally and #5 of 179 in Nebraska. 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 Jefferson Community Health & Life Gardenside receives a reported average of 4 hours 45 minutes of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 52 minutes; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 1 hour 1 minute; Nurse Aide — 2 hours 52 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 3 hours 35 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 12.9%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

The facility has received 6 fine(s) over the 5-year period, totaling $11,700. 2 substantiated complaints were recorded across the 5-year period — families should request details from the facility or review CMS inspection findings. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 0 fine(s) totaling $0, and 0 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 0. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 10.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, Jefferson Community Health & Life Gardenside ranks 350th out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 92.2/100), placing it in the top 5% nationwide. Within NE, it ranks 5th out of 179 nursing homes. In Fairbury, 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 #1,683 nationally and RN hours rank #2,973 nationally (#37 in NE). Our composite quality score of 92.2/100 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 Fairbury, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/nebraska/fairbury/