Life Care Center of Kona
78-6957 Kamehameha III Road, Kailua Kona, HI 96740 · 94 beds · For profit - Corporation
The records flag: 2 citations where a resident was harmed.
These are drawn straight from Medicare's records. We report what the record says — we don't rate facilities or judge the care given in them.
Who's actually on the floor
Staffing is the thing most closely tied to day-to-day quality of care, and it's the number families most often never see. This is registered nurses only — a smaller figure than the all-staff total above, because it counts the most highly qualified staff on their own — per resident, per day, comparing an average weekday against an average weekend.
Registered nurses only — hours per resident per day. Longer is better.
Registered nurse coverage is about 25% lower at weekends.
Staff turnover: 38%
High turnover matters because continuity does — a nurse who knows your mother notices when something is different about her. Someone on their second shift doesn't have that baseline.
What inspectors found
State inspectors visit at least once a year and after complaints. Over the last three years this facility received 44 citations. Raw counts mislead, though — a paperwork slip and a resident being harmed both count as one. Here they are by how serious inspectors judged them.
| Severity | Citations |
|---|---|
| Actual harm | 2 |
| Potential for harm | 40 |
| No harm | 2 |
5 of these came from someone filing a complaint rather than a routine visit — worth weighing differently, because it means a person picked up the phone. All findings are recorded as corrected.
Medicare has issued $27,612 in fines here over the past three years.
What happened to residents
Everything above this point describes how the facility is run — who is on shift, what inspectors found. These are outcomes: what Medicare recorded happening to the people actually living there, averaged over a year and set against the state.
| Over a year, the share of long-stay residents who… | Here | Hawaii |
|---|---|---|
| Falls causing major injury | 0.0% | 1.9% |
| Pressure ulcers (bedsores) | 3.3% | 3.4% |
| Given antipsychotic medication | 22.2% | 11.9% |
| Physically restrained | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| Urinary tract infections | 0.7% | 2.4% |
| Lost the ability to walk unaided | 10.9% | 20.4% |
Lower is better on every line. Covers 2025Q2-2026Q1.
Medicare adjusts these figures for how unwell residents were on arrival, so a home that takes on frailer people is not marked down for it. That adjustment is imperfect where a facility's residents are unusual, which is why the state figure sits beside each number instead of a rank or a score.
Disclosed affiliations
Medicare requires every facility to disclose the people and companies connected to it. Most names below are not owners — they are officers, directors, managers, trustees, and what Medicare calls “additional disclosable parties.” The role beside each name is the one Medicare recorded. This is worth reading because operators tend to run their facilities alike: where the same group stands behind a dozen homes, the record across all twelve tells you more than any single inspection does.
| Name | Role recorded by Medicare | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Lay, Lisa | Direct owner (5% or more), Corporate officer | 08/01/2020 |
| Swanker, Richard | Direct owner (5% or more), Corporate officer | 01/01/2011 |
| Eder, Meredith | Managing employee | 03/01/2020 |
| Life Care Centers of America, INC. | Operational or managerial control | 08/28/2001 |
| Cross, Cindy | Corporate officer | 05/29/2001 |
| Preston, Forrest | Corporate officer | 05/29/2001 |
| Thurmond, Joan | Corporate officer | 05/29/2001 |
Other options nearby
Most families are choosing between whatever is close enough to visit often — and visiting often is itself one of the better protections a resident has. These are the closest 6 facilities.
| Facility | Miles | Rating | Nurse hrs | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honoka'A Hospital & Skilled Nursing | 47.7 | 5 | 1.70 | −35% |
| Legacy Hilo Rehabilitation & Nursing Center | 56.2 | 1 | 0.91 | −32% |
| Hale Anuenue Restorative Care | 56.3 | 4 | 1.23 | −30% |
| Hilo Benioff Medical Center | 56.3 | 4 | 1.43 | −23% |
| Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home | 56.3 | 4 | 1.25 | −27% |
| Life Care Center of Hilo | 57.2 | 3 | 1.03 | −41% |
Worth asking on a visit
Records only tell you so much. These are the questions this facility's particular numbers suggest you ask — go on a weekend if you possibly can.
- Can I visit on a Sunday rather than a weekday? How many registered nurses are on duty then, and for how many residents?
- Who will actually be caring for my relative at 3am on a Saturday — an agency nurse or someone on staff?