Weirton Geriatric Center

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A- for our short-term care grade. Our short-term care ratings are believed to be most critical for residents requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing services. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this area is the number of residents that ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Adding to its strong performance in other categories, we awarded this nursing home an B+ for nursing. Our nursing rating considers a host of subcategories. The most important variable is the quantity of hours nurses spend with patients. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality measures and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a system of turning patients at least once a day.

Additionally, this nursing home also was given favorable long-term care grades in our assessment. Indeed, we awarded them one of our higher scores in that category, with a score of B. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents out of the hospital. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Finally, we found that this nursing home has earned favorable government inspections in recent years. In fact, we awarded it a grade of B in this area. Inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can find more information about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. While this facility had some deficiencies on its government inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.