Westgate Gardens Care Center
4525 W. Tulare Ave., Visalia CA 93277 · (559) 733-0901 · 94.5% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Reese
Westgate Gardens Care Center is a large nursing home located in Visalia, California. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of C. A grade of this caliber requires some respectable scores. Based on the data we reviewed, there are definitely much worse facilities out there. This facility was better in some categories than others, but it didn't have any bad scores in any of our major areas discussed below. More information about these categories can be found below.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 140 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Limited Liability company
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
This nursing home received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to emphasize its excellent health inspection reports in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A- in this category. Inspection grades account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this category generally have very few severe deficiencies. While this facility had some deficiencies on its report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. A few minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home's next highest category turned out to be short-term care. In that area, we gave this nursing home a C. In our short-term care score, we try to create a sound barometer for rehabilitation. In this process, we assess a nursing home's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. One reason for this nursing home's strong score in this category is that it provides a substantially greater volume of physical therapist hours than the average facility. The final metric we looked at in this area is the number of residents who who were able to eventually return home from the nursing home. It fared better than most nursing homes in this metric with 50.9 percent of its residents returning home. For most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Long-term Care Quality
We also gave this facility a middle of the road grade in the category of long-term care, where it received a C. If you are looking for services other than rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care scores. After we finished looking at the amount of nursing care, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. We were pleased to find that this facility vaccinates 99.3135 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.51 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility had fewer hospitalizations than most nursing homes.
Nurse Quality
The next category we assessed was nursing. We awarded it a grade of C in that area. This is a decent grade in this category. Our nursing rating is based on the facility's level of nurse staffing. We consider both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provided 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared very well in this statistic.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Westgate Gardens Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percentage of patients who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also called bed sores, are often caused by patients staying in one position for too long. Better nursing protocols can limit the percentage of residents in a nursing home who sustain pressure ulcers.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This statistic tells you the percentage of long-term patients which suffered a fall resulting in severe injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but excessive numbers of falls could be a sign of lower levels of patient supervision.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This statistic is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay residents who have experienced UTI's. While more of these infections could reflect poorly on a facility's hygiene protocols, it can be difficult to compare different facilities due to varying reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This figure gauges the percentage of long-term stay residents taking antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications play an important role in caring for many residents, it is important to make sure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may indicate a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients given antianxiety drugs. Antianxiety drugs are given to patients suffering from anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This indicates the percent of patients showing depressive symptoms. Higher levels of depression may be an indicator lower quality care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of patients that received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. High vaccination rates should be standard at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term stay residents who needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as getting dressed and using the bathroom. Some would argue that this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This is the percent of residents that were able to retain mobility over time. Optimizing mobility can be a great sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This indicates the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This tells you the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care. There is a correlation between keeping patients out of the emergency room and the overall quality of rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percentage of short-term patients that experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Some experts believe that this is a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better