Palomar Vista Healthcare Center
201 N Fig Street, Escondido CA 92025 · (760) 746-0303 · 94.32% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Palomar Vista Healthcare Center is a small nursing home located in Escondido, California. This nursing home was awarded an A- overall, which is very favorable rating. In fact, we were so impressed with this nursing home that we rated it as one of the top five facilities in Escondido. The best part of this facility's strong profile was its inspection score. Inspection grades are discussed in the next paragraph
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 74 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of receiving a strong overall rating, this facility also received an A+ inspection score. This grade is based on its recent government inspections. An A+ in this area is one of the highest complements we can pay to a nursing home. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in computing our inspection grades is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Unfortunately, it does not look like we were able to find information on deficiency's for this nursing home. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
We also wanted to direct your attention to the fact that this facility performed well in our long-term care rating. We awarded them a dominant grade of A+ in this area. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care tend to be well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccinations. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccination is a proven method to minimize unnecessary hospitalizations for the elderly population. This facility also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 1.43 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home also received a top-shelf short-term care grade. Indeed, this ended up being this facility's third most impressive category score. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of A-. Short-term care grades are based on a nursing home's quantity of skilled nursing services. This includes a wide spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. One reason for this facility's strong score in this category is that it provides a greater volume of physical therapist hours to its residents than the average nursing home. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients that were able to return home from this nursing home. In addition to excelling in the area of physical therapy, we found that it fared as well as just about any facility in the nation in this area with 65.1 percent of its patients returning home. Most nursing homes are below 50 percent in this metric.
Nurse Quality
Switching gears to our last area, this facility was awarded a decent nursing score. Although this isn't nearly as strong as a few of its other scores, this is really not the end of the world. Our nursing rating focuses on the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We look at both the levels of training of those nurses and the amount of time spent with patients. This place provides an impressive 3.9 hours of nursing care per patient each day. Lastly, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this place excelled in some of these areas. With fewer than five percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this subcategory.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Palomar Vista Healthcare Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients which developed pressure ulcers or bed sores. We use this statistic in calculating both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percent of residents that have had a major fall. Falls resulting in major injuries are considered to be a barometer of nursing care at a nursing home. Falls which result in injury are routinely caused by lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of patients that sustained a urinary tract infection. These infections could be linked to poorer hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic drugs may be vital to many residents, it is important to confirm these drugs are being used only where medically required. In some cases, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percentage of residents given antianxiety medications. These medications are typically used to treat patients experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term care residents exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percent of patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is the percentage of residents that required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of residents who remained mobile levels over time. Retaining mobility can be a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric measures the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term patient care. Minimizing rehospitalizations during rehabilitation is important to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric tracks the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term care. Avoiding medical emergencies is one way to measure the well-being of patients during rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
Measures the percent of short-term patients that saw functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better