El Centro Post-Acute

Although we didn't give this nursing home a good overall grade, we actually gave it a relatively strong grade in the category of inspections, where it received a B+. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. You should avoid places with a bunch of deficiencies flagged. While this facility had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A few minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

Additionally, we also wanted to note that this nursing home received favorable long-term care marks this year. We awarded them one of our higher grades in that area, with a grade of B. This turned out to be the facility's second best score. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in this category tend to provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are well cared for. One of the criteria we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. This facility administered the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its residents. This is a great way to avoid negative health outcomes for the aged 65 and up population. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

The next category we assessed is short-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a grade of C. In the category of short-term care, we seek to assess measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and various therapists. In this facility's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than the typical facility. The hope is always that this does not adversely impact the quality of care. The final item we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who returned home from the nursing home. We found that just 5.4 percent of this facility's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below average.

The next area we looked at is nursing, where this nursing home was given a poor grade in this area as well. Sadly, it received an F for this category, which is obviously somewhat alarming. There are a host of criteria included in this area. Many of the criteria reflect the quantity of nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is an alarmingly low total. On top of rating below average in nursing hours per resident, this nursing home also had poor scores in the quality-based metrics we looked at in computing our nursing scores. We looked at the percentage of residents experiencing major falls and pressure ulcers. This facility was at roughly 150 percent of the national average in both of these data points. This is a bad sign when you consider that many falls and bed sores are preventable with better nursing care. These metrics pulled down this facility's nursing grade quite a bit.