Guardian Elder Care at Wheeling
20 Homestead Avenue, Wheeling WV 26003 · (304) 234-0500 · 89.26% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Guardian Elder Care at Wheeling is a large hospital-based nursing home located in Wheeling, West Virginia. It looks like this facility is a subpar nursing home. A grade in this range indicates we found a few red flags. If you are not satisfied with this facility's low overall grade, you may find you have slim pickings in Wheeling. The city has just two other nursing homes. We would not blame you if you are ready to stop reading and find another facility. However, if you want to learn more about this place's category grades, we will discuss short-term care in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 150 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
Even though we didn't give this nursing home a good overall score, we actually gave it a strong grade in our short-term care category, where it earned a grade of B+. This is better than most nursing homes in this category. To some degree, this bailed out an otherwise abysmal profile. In determining our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This rating is often a useful measure of the facility's rehabilitation. This facility excelled in the two key staffing areas we looked at. It offered more care from physical therapists and registered nurses than the average nursing home. This is generally an excellent sign. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that it outperformed the majority of nursing homes with 51.4 percent of its residents returning home.
Facility Inspections
Shockingly, this nursing home actually received a good score in the area of inspections as well. We gave it a grade of B for that category, which is one of our better grades. Not many facilities that were this poor overall earned multiple category grades of this caliber. Arguably the most important factor we look at in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a nursing home's recent inspection reports. It is generally best to avoid places that have a long list of deficiencies. While this place had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G through L. This means the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home actually received a decent grade in the area of nursing as well. We awarded it a grade of C for that category, which is not a bad score. Nursing grades are based in large part on quantity of nursing care available. This facility provided just 3.1 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Finally, nursing ratings also factor in quality-based metrics, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this nursing home actually performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is generally an indicator that a nursing home has sufficient quality controls in place. Some falls can be avoided if a nursing home supplies enough nurses to assist its patients.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we analyzed was long-term care. This facility was given an abysmal grade of F in that category. In a long-term care environment, the primary objective is to keep patients healthy and safe. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. On top of considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 96.4455 percent of its residents, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this place was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 1.38 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, some 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.
Guardian Elder Care at Wheeling Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This datapoint gauges the percent of long-term care residents who suffer from pressure ulcers. We find that pressure ulcers are a great indicator of nursing care quality.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of patients who sustained a major fall. Falls leading to severe injuries are considered to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . Major falls resulting in injury are often the result of poor nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percent of residents who have had a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are often linked to poor nursing care. Closer supervision can reduce the number likelihood of residents sustaining infections. Keep in mind that this statistic is sometimes skewed by the fact that facilities have varying reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percent of patients given antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotic medications are given to residents for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer's or other dementias. Unfortunately, in limited cases, increased usage of these drugs may mean that a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This statistic tells you the percent of long-term patients taking antianxiety drugs.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This indicates the percent of residents exhibiting symptoms of depression. High levels of depression could be an indicator lower quality care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of patients who were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of residents that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of needing for assistance with ADL's could be a sign of erosion of a patient's health.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This indicates the percentage of residents who remained mobile levels over time. Preserving mobility can be a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This indicates the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care. There is generally a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term patient care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical abilities of patients.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. There is usually a correlation between fewer emergency room visits and the quality of nursing home care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric measures the percentage of short-term stay patients who saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Some experts argue this is a reasonable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better