Western Hills Health Care Center
1625 Carr Street, Denver CO 80214 · (303) 232-6881 · 56.42% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Western Hills Health Care Center is located in the large metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado. Sporting an overall score of A, we found this facility as one of the top five nursing homes in the city. An overall score in this range is a good indication of a world class facility. Denver features many other nursing homes, but we question whether you will need to check out too many others. This one looks like a first class option. As you can find below, this nursing home performed equally well in our category scores. We give this place two thumbs up!
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 140 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of being a strong facility overall, it also earned A+ health inspections recently. Its inspections are nearly perfect. Inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
To complement its dominant accomplishments in other areas, we gave this facility a score of A for its long-term care grade. Facilities that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure patients are kept in good health. Once we looked at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 99.64286 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients out of the hospital. The last statistic we assessed was its hospitalization rate. We found that this nursing home had 2.89 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. While this admittedly wasn't as impressive as some of its other scores in this category, this figure can be skewed for some facilities based on some of the preexisting medical conditions of patients.
Nurse Quality
We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. We analyzed the levels of nurses working for the nursing home, as well as the number of hours those nurses worked with patients, in determining our rating in this area. This nursing home provides 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at some quality-based measures in this category. This nursing home fared well in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. For example, in terms of the number of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this facility performed better than the national average. This is generally an indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided with better nursing care.
Short-term Care Quality
In the last area, we gave this facility a grade of A+ for its short-term care score. This completed a very strong profile. Short-term care scores are based in part on a facility's quantity of skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This means a wide range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, in addition to other variations of therapy. One of this nursing home's strength is that it offers more hours of care from registered nurses to its residents. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return home from this nursing home. It outperformed the majority of nursing homes in the country in this area with 49.7 percent of its patients returning home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Western Hills Health Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percent of patients who suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be an indicator of nursing care . Pressure ulcers, which are also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by patients not being moved frequently enough.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is an indication of the percentage of long-term care patients who had a fall which resulted in serious injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but excessive numbers of falls could be an indication of lower levels of patient supervision.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of patients that have had a urinary tract infection. These infections are linked to inadequate hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric indicates the percent of long-term patients who are given antipsychotic drugs. High levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior in scenarios where such medications aren't medically required. However, some nursing homes need to rely on these medications due to having more residents suffering from dementia.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percent of long-term residents taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric measures the percent of long-term residents exhibiting symptoms of depression. Many in the industry argue that this is a reliable measure of quality of care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This tells you the percentage of residents that were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be standard at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percent of residents that required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's could be a sign of the decline of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term patients that were able to retain mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care. Minimizing hospitalizations is critical to preserving the physical health of patients.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of short-term stay residents who experienced functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better