Mirador

In addition to receiving a great overall score, this facility received an A+ inspection grade. This grade is based on its recent government inspections. An A+ in this area is one of the best complements we can pay to a facility. Inspection scores account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better grades in this category generally have few severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home also received an A+ nursing grade, making it one of the few nursing homes to receive multiple A+ category grades. Nursing grades are primarily based on a facility's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place Texas in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as employing a system of turning patients more frequently.

Turning the page to our third category, this facility received an excellent long-term care grade. In fact, it received a score of A in that category. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 72.043015 percent of its residents, which is slightly less than we expected. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we like to see, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The last area we analyzed was short-term care, where this facility was given a grade of B+. This rounded out a very favorable report card. Very few nursing homes received a B+ or better in all four categories. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to evaluate measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We assess a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to return home from the facility. We found that 5.3 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.