Merkel Nursing Center
1704 N 1st, Merkel TX 79536 · (325) 928-5673 · 65% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Merkel Nursing Center is the sole option we identified in Merkel, Texas. We awarded it an overall grade of B-, which is a middle of the pack rating. In our view, this facility looks like a solid choice for most people. More information on this nursing home's category grades is available below. Its best category was long-term care, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 66 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Long-term Care Quality
This place really excelled in the category of long-term care, where it received an impressive grade of A+. Facilities that do well in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to patients. One of the criteria we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccinations. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. This is a reliable method to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations for the senior population. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.5 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes.
Facility Inspections
Inspections is another area where this nursing home excelled. In fact, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A for our inspections category. Our inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher grades in this area tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G through L. This tells you the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Nurse Quality
Another strength of this nursing home is its favorable grade in nursing. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with an D. The nursing rating includes quite a few factors, however, the paramount one is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This facility provided a meager 3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. On top of its weak nursing hours, this facility also received suboptimal marks in some of the quality-based metrics we considered in computing our nursing ratings. We found that more of this nursing home's patients sustained falls leading to major injury. We would argue that many falls could likely be prevented with better nursing care. This statistic contributed to this place receiving a poor nursing rating.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility's weakest category is short-term care, which is the final category we looked at. For this area, we gave this facility a D. Our short-term care grades are meaningful for prospective residents looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes a vast spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The final item we considered in this area is the number of patients who returned home from the nursing home. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this area, with just 32.2 percent of its patients returning home. Unfortunately, this was well below the national average.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Merkel Nursing Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term care residents which developed pressure ulcers. We find that pressure ulcers are a reliable barometer of the quality of nursing care a facility provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of long-term residents that sustained a fall which resulted in serious injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but high rates of major falls may be an indicator of lower levels of patient supervision.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percentage of patients that sustained a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered by many experts to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are routinely linked to a nursing home with worse hygiene protocols. Nevertheless, this datapoint can also be misleading for some facilities due to inconsistent reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of residents given antipsychotic drugs. These medications may be used for treating a variety of conditions, such as Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percentage of patients given antianxiety medications. Antianxiety drugs are given to patients suffering from depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term care patients who are exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of patients that have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients who needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as getting dressed and continence.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This indicates the percent of patients who maintained mobility over time. Retaining mobility is often a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This indicates the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term patient care. There is usually a correlation between having fewer hospitalizations and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better