Cadia Healthcare - Wheaton

In addition to receiving a solid overall score, this facility also earned a strong inspection grade, which is associated with the facility's recent inspections. In fact, we awarded it a B+ in this area. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category generally have very few severe deficiencies. This facility received 10 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none of the deficiencies were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors did not consider any of these deficiencies to be an immediate threat to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another one of this nursing home's impressive category scores came in the category of long-term care. We awarded them one of our better grades in that area, with a score of B. For long-term care residents, the primary goal is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 77.84615 percent of its residents. This is slightly below what we expected but still a respectable figure. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B in this area. We looked at the licensure of nurses working for the facility, in addition to the number of hours those nurses were with patients, in calculating our score in this area. This particular nursing home 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 facility 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 often be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The next category we looked at was short-term care, in which we gave it a strong grade of B. This facility really does not have any weak grades. In computing our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This area is frequently a meaningful measure of the facility's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we considered in this category is the number of patients who eventually returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.