Avalon Care Center at Northpointe
9827 North Nevada, Spokane WA 99218 · (509) 468-7000 · 87.64% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Avalon Care Center at Northpointe is located in Spokane, Washington. This city is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the country with has a total of 342,856 people. Sporting an overall score of B-, this is likely a decent nursing home. This grade is right in line with the city grade in Spokane. The best part of this nursing home's profile was is its short-term care score. We discuss short-term care in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 119 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
We awarded this nursing home one of our better scores in short-term care, where it received an A+. This is much better than the facility's overall grade, which was certainly not elite. Our short-term care scores are important for residents requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of skilled nursing. This includes a wide scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. This nursing home is substantially above the national average in terms of its quantity of both physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents. In fact, it provided about 50% more care per resident from both of these care providers than the average facility provided. These are generally good indicators of quality short-term care. The last item we looked at in this category is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any nursing home in Washington in this area with 60 percent of its residents returning home. Unfortunately, at most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of A-. The nursing grade includes a number of factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This place boasts a really impressive 4.1 hours of nursing care per patient each day, of which a significant percentage was provided by registered nurses. This is one of the more highly trained levels of nurses. In addition to providing high levels of nursing care, this facility also fared well in some of the quality-based metrics we looked at. For example, in terms of the number of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this nursing home performed better than the national average. This is often a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented with better nursing care and having a policy of regularly turning residents to prevent bed sores.
Facility Inspections
This facility received somewhat favorable health inspections in recent years. We awarded them a decent score in that area, with a grade of C. Our inspection scores are tied to many datapoints found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Deficiencies are a key item to look for on these reports. Severe deficiencies indicate a threat to the well being of residents. This place was assessed 10 deficiencies on its government inspection report, but none were category J through L deficiencies. This means inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to put resident health or safety in immediate harm or jeopardy. In the bigger picture, this inspection definitely could be worse.
Long-term Care Quality
The last category we graded is long-term care. We awarded this facility a D for our long-term care category, leaving this as its least impressive category. If you are looking for services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care ratings. Based on its grade in this category, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that this nursing home received good marks in both nursing hours and its vaccination records. In fact, this nursing home gave the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. This percentage is actually higher than the average nursing home. Surprisingly, this place also keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 1.28 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in the category weren't as favorable as these.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Avalon Care Center at Northpointe Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percent of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also called bed sores, are routinely caused by patients staying in one position for too long. Better nursing protocols limits the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay patients which have had a fall resulting in severe injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but excessive numbers of falls may be a sign of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This tells you the percentage of patients that suffered from a urinary tract infection. These infections are sometimes associated with insufficient hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percentage of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic medications are given to residents for many conditions, including cognitive disorders. Tragically, in limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a nursing home is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term residents taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric measures the percent of long-term stay residents who are exhibiting depressive symptoms. Some experts argue that this is a measure of quality of life.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
Measures the percentage of long-term patients that were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home patients, making these vaccines vital to patient safety.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of residents that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the erosion of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of patients who were able to retain mobility over time. Retaining mobility is usually a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the health of patients.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percent of short-term care residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. High levels of autonomy with ADL's usually correlates with higher quality rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better