The Heights of Alamo
1214 S. Alamo Road, Alamo TX 78516 · (956) 715-8600 · 51.69% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
With an address in Alamo, Texas, The Heights of Alamo is the lone nursing home located in the city. Featuring an overall score of C, this is likely a decent facility. As far as we can see, this nursing home should be a solid choice for quite a few people. The best part of this facility's report card was its remarkable inspection reports. We discuss inspections in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 130 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
To go along with its decent overall score, we gave this nursing home an A+ for our inspections rating. This grade is far more impressive than its overall grade. Our inspection scores are based on several pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category tend to have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Unfortunately, it does not look like we were able to find deficiency counts for this nursing home. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is always a good sign.
Long-term Care Quality
This nursing home also received a favorable grade in our long-term care category. We gave this nursing home an above average grade of B+ in this category. Long-term care scores of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 91.304344 percent of its residents. This is a bit lower than we expected but still a reasonably acceptable figure. Finally, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. Although it had 2.9 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, its risk adjusted score was close to the middle of the pack since it had more complicated patients.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility's second lowest category is short-term care, where it earned a grade of just D in that area. This is a well below average score. In determining our short-term care grades, we look at a facility's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This grade is considered to be a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We found that this place was below average in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its patients based on the staffing figures we looked at. Finally, we considered the percentage of residents that ultimately were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that it performed better in this area, with 54.9 percent of its residents returning home.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home's weakest area is nursing, which is the last area we assessed. It received an abysmal F for this area. In spite of a few acceptable scores in other categories, this score is nevertheless of a concern so we wanted to make sure you are aware. The nursing score features a host of factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the amount of time nurses spent with patients. This facility offered a meager 3.2 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is not a very impressive figure. This nursing home also had abysmal scores in some of the quality-based metrics to go along with its low nursing hour totals. We looked at the percent of residents sustaining pressure ulcers and we were disappointed. This nursing home was at roughly 1.5 times the national average in this measure.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
The Heights of Alamo Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term stay patients which suffer from new or worsened pressure ulcers. We have found that pressure ulcers are a reliable measure of the quality of nursing care a nursing home provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a fall which resulted in severe injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percent of long-term care residents who have experienced urinary tract infections. Although more infections could reflect poorly on a nursing home's hygiene protocols, it can be difficult to compare different facilities due to facilities having inconsistent reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term patients taking antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to confirm these medications are being used appropriately. In limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest that a facility is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percent of patients who were given antianxiety drugs. These medications are generally prescribed to patients suffering from anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term care residents demonstrating symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percent of patients who received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percentage of patients that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. There is typically a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This datapoint measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is a measure of the percent of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry believe that this is a reasonable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better