Summer Meadows

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our long-term care category. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to residents. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is far higher than the majority of nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A- in our nursing category. Nursing grades are based largely on quality and quantity of nursing care. This nursing home averages 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

The next area we assessed was short-term care. Adding to its superb profile, this facility also excelled in this area. In fact, it received a grade of of A- in that area. Our short-term care grades are critical for individuals requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually mandates higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a wide spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last datapoint we considered in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

Finally, this nursing home also earned a virtually flawless government inspection. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A-. With this impressive grade, this place is one of the few facilities in Texas to earn straight A's. Our inspection grades are tied to items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that score well in this category typically have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these facilities generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. Although this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.