Vibralife of Katy Rehabilitation Center

The main reason this turned out to be a decent nursing home is that it earned an elite inspection score. In fact, its inspection grade was far better than its overall score. In the inspections category, we gave it an A+. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. This is what you like to see in this important metric.

Another one of this nursing home's more favorable category scores was in the category of short-term care. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of B. It actually outpaced most facilities in this area. Short-term care grades are crucial for people seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. This means a vast spectrum of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final measure we considered in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that 5.2 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

We also gave this nursing home a decent score in the category of nursing care, with a grade of C. Nursing scores are primarily based on the facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared with most other facilities. Lastly, despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this place actually performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is typically a good indicator that a place has quality controls in place.

Switching gears to our last area, we awarded this facility a D in long-term care. This was the nursing home's worst category grade. Of course, this grade hurt the nursing home's overall grade to some degree. For long-term care residents, the nursing home's primary goal is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate residents. In addition to assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this place also keeps its residents out of the hospital. It had just 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Unfortunately, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.