Highland Nursing Center

Highland Nursing Center is in San Antonio, Texas, which has a variety of nursing homes. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of C. A grade in this range requires some solid marks. This place seems to have some things working in its favor. This place didn't fare well in every category we looked at, but it didn't receive any terrible grades either. More information about these categories is available below.

We want to draw your attention to the fact that this facility outperformed its overall score in the category of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless government inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our best grades in that area with an A. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection grades. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite minor. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This tells you the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.

Another one of this facility's more impressive category grades came in the area of long-term care. In that category, we gave this facility a B+. It actually outperformed most nursing homes in this category. When facilities receive this kind of score in long-term care it is a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. Once we looked at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 98.809525 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is more than the average nursing home. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.42 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had less hospitalizations than many nursing homes.

One of this facility's better category grades was in the area of nursing care. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of C. In determining our nursing ratings, we look at both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home provides 3.2 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, while this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of our quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this subcategory.

Switching gears to the final area, we awarded this nursing home a D for the area of short-term care. This is the nursing home's worst category grade. With our short-term care rating, we endeavor to create a sound gauge for rehabilitation. In this process, we analyze the nursing home's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. With a score in this range in this category, we were not surprised to find this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing metrics we assess. The facility offered far fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than most nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that just 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.