Alamo Nursing Home

In addition to performing well in its overall score, this facility received even higher grades in the area of nursing. In fact, we gave it one of our best scores in that category with an A. There are a number of datapoints within this area. Most of these criteria are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This facility 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 place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Adding to this facility's list of strengths, it also received a very favorable short-term care score. We gave them an impressive strong of A- in this area. Our short-term care grades are arguably more important for residents requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes higher levels of highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means not merely nursing, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Turning to the third category, this facility also earned a score of B for its long-term care rating. This is an above average grade in this area. When facilities receive a grade in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping patients healthy. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Lastly, we looked at this facility's inspection grade This did not end up being one of this nursing home's stronger grades. We gave it a score of C in this area. This isn't a horrible grade in this category. It simply wasn't as strong as some of this facility's other category grades. We believe that one of the most important factors in evaluating an inspection report is deficiencies. In this regard, we especially focus on the severity of those deficiencies. This nursing home was assessed 5 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but we were relieved to find that none were in any of the categories labeled G through L. This indicates this facility dodged the more significant categories of deficiencies. Unfortunately, we also need to draw your attention to the fact that this facility received significant government fines in recent years.