Avamere Bellingham Health Care & Rehab Services
1200 Birchwood Avenue, Bellingham WA 98225 · (360) 734-9295 · 82.61% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Avamere Bellingham Health Care & Rehab Services is located in Bellingham, Washington, a city with a total of 117,728 people. Featuring an overall grade of F, we consider this to be a lower end facility. Bellingham received a city grade of C, so there are some other options in the city worth considering. We wouldn't blame you if you're ready to stop reading and find another nursing home. However, if you want to learn more about this nursing home's category grades, we will discuss nursing in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 84 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of B- in that category. We analyzed the licensure of nurses working for the nursing home, as well as the quantity of hours the nurses spent with residents, in determining our score in this category. Based on the data, it looks like this nursing home provides an impressive 3.9 hours per patient per day. This is more nursing care than most facilities offer. In computing our grades, we apply more weight to hours performed by more highly trained nurses such as registered or licensed nurses. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based metrics, such as avoiding major falls. This nursing home performed admirably in this metric. Avoiding serious falls is typically a reliable indicator that a nursing home has quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a facility provides enough nurses to assist its residents.
Short-term Care Quality
We were also surprised to find that this facility received a somewhat respectable short-term care score in our assessment. We gave it a grade of B- in that area. In computing our short-term care grades, we scrutinize a facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This category is more often than not a solid assessment of the facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. This nursing home provides more services with registered nurses and physical therapists than most facilities we looked at. This is generally a very favorable sign. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return home from this nursing home. It fared better than most facilities with 52.1 percent of its residents returning home.
Long-term Care Quality
We were also surprised to learn that this nursing home received a somewhat respectable long-term care rating this year. We gave it a B- in that area. Our long-term care grade focuses on a nursing home's assistance with daily living rather than the highly skilled nursing or medical services that are critical to a skilled nursing facility. This facility's vaccination records weren't as favorable as its nursing hours. It gave the pneumonia vaccine to just 85.65574 percent of its residents. We'd like to see some improvement herein this statistic in the future. The last datapoint we assessed is the nursing home's hospitalization rate. Here we found that this nursing home had a relatively high 3.81 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Neither its vaccination record nor its hospitalization rate were strengths for this place in this area.
Facility Inspections
In the final category of inspections, this nursing home fared very poorly. Sadly, it received an F in our inspection rating. For places that received this poor of an inspection grade, we would scrutinize any severe deficiencies on its inspection report. This nursing home was hit with 9 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only favorable thing we found is that none of the deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they created a risk to patient health or safety. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Avamere Bellingham Health Care & Rehab Services 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