Birchwood Plaza
1426 West Birchwood, Chicago IL 60626 · (773) 274-4405 · 66.79% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Birchwood Plaza is a large nursing home located in Chicago, Illinois. This isn't a bad facility with a C overall grade. This grade is right in line with the city grade in Chicago. You could definitely do worse than this nursing home. This place did not meet our expectations in every category we looked at, but it did not receive any rock-bottom grades either. More information about its category grades is available below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 200 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
This facility earned a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to emphasize its nearly flawless inspection reports in recent years. We awarded them an A in this category. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this nursing home had a few minor dings on its government inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is always a good sign.
Long-term Care Quality
Another one of this facility's better category grades was in the area of long-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a B+. It actually performed better than most facilities in this area. Facilities that receive this kind of score in long-term care typically provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are well cared for. After we finished looking at the volume of care provided by nurses, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 99.26063 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly is often a dangerous illness for nursing home residents so we like it when a nursing home doesn't leave this to chance. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. With 1.85 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home was close to average in this area.
Short-term Care Quality
The third area we graded was short-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a C. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze a facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This rating is more often than not a useful measure of the nursing home's rehabilitation. This nursing home provides a decent amount of services from physical therapists and registered nurses based on our assessment. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return home from this facility. We found that 24.3 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was actually below the national average.
Nurse Quality
The last category we analyzed was nursing, is this facility's worst area. We gave this nursing home a grade of D in that area. There are numerous factors included in this category. Most of these data points are tied to nurse staffing. This nursing home averaged just 2.4 hours of nursing care per resident daily. To go along with its subpar totals in the area of nursing hours per resident, this place also did not perform as well in the quality-based measures we looked at in computing our nursing scores. We looked at the percent of patients sustaining major falls and pressure ulcers. This facility had more pressure ulcers and falls than the average nursing home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Birchwood Plaza Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This metric is an indication of the percentage of long-term care patients who have new or worsened pressure ulcers . We use this statistic in calculating both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of patients that suffered from a major fall. Falls leading to serious injuries are considered by many experts to be a measure of the quality of nursing care at a nursing home. Falls are often the result of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of residents who suffered from a urinary tract infection. These infections are linked to poorer hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients receiving antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs play an important role in caring for many residents, it is important to make sure these medications are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This figure is an indication of the percentage of long-term care patients that were given antianxiety drugs. These drugs are generally prescribed to patients suffering from depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term care patients exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of patients that received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is the percent of patients that needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living may be a sign of decline of a resident's health.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This is a measure of the percent of long-term stay patients that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
Measures the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care. Avoiding hospitalizations is critical to maintaining the physical health of nursing home residents.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
Measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care.
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 care. There is typically a correlation between keeping patients out of the emergency room and the overall quality of nursing home care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better