Topeka Center

While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of C in that category. In calculating a nursing home's nursing rating, we assess the quantity of hours nurses commit to residents as well as the levels of training of the nurses. This facility provides only 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a somewhat discouraging figure which is well below average. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality-based measures. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared remarkably well in this metric. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident even once per day.

We were also surprised to find that this facility earned a somewhat respectable short-term care rating in our assessment. We gave it a C in this category. In calculating these short-term care ratings, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our purpose is to create a scale for comparing the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Unfortunately, we found that this facility provided fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other facilities. The tricky part is determining what effect this had on quality of care. The last metric we looked at in this area is the number of residents who ultimately were able to return home from the facility. We found that just 4.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

Among this facility's alarming category grades was an F for its inspection grade. More often than not, this means we found some red flags on the facility's inspection reports. For facilities with bad inspection scores, you should scrutinize any severe deficiencies found on their recent inspection reports. This facility had 3 deficiencies by CMS. The only favorable thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that suggest they caused a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, CMS cited this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. Hopefully, its performance improves in the future, but until then we simply can't recommend this facility.

The final category we scored is long-term care. Unfortunately, we gave it an F in this category, which is a poor score. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 94.14893 percent of its residents, which is higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. To our surprise, this facility also fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had just 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.