Clyde W Cosper Texas State Veterans Home

One of the many reasons this place ended up being a great nursing home is that it earned an A+ in our inspections category. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Arguably the most significant factor we consider in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Places with higher scores in this category typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. We should note that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in this industry.

Adding to its impressive resume, this nursing home also excelled in our nursing category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- for that category. Our nursing rating is mostly based on a nursing home's nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This facility performed very well in the area of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

This facility also was elite in the category of short-term care, where we awarded it a score of A-. Very few nursing homes fared better in this area. In the area of short-term care, we seek to evaluate indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We analyze a nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this area is the number of residents who were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

The next category we rated was long-term care, in which this facility was given a C. This ended up being this nursing home's weakest category. This is still a middle of the pack score. 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. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is an above average statistic. Lastly, this nursing home was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.