Wheaton Care Center
1325 Manchester Road, Wheaton IL 60187 · (630) 668-2500 · 94.14% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Wheaton Care Center is a large nursing home located in Wheaton, Illinois. 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. The best part of this facility's profile was is its inspection grade. We discuss inspections in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 123 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
To pair with its decent overall grade, we awarded this facility an A- for its inspection grade. This grade is far better than its overall grade. Our inspection ratings weigh several factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this category usually have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this place had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were severe based on CMS' scale. A few minor deficiencies should not stop you from considering a nursing home.
Long-term Care Quality
Another one of this facility's better category grades was in the area of long-term care. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of B+. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically provide residents with better supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. On top of considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 97.613884 percent of its patients, which is better than the vast majority of nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the facility's number of hospitalizations. Here we found that this facility had 2.77 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Although this admittedly wasn't as favorable as most of its other scores in this area, this figure can be skewed for some nursing homes based on the medical complexity of residents.
Nurse Quality
One of this facility's better category grades was in the area of nursing care. In that area, we gave this facility a grade of C. Nursing scores are based largely on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides only 2.1 hours of nursing care per resident on a daily basis. This is a somewhat discouraging figure which is well below average. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as preventing major falls. Although this facility didn't have as many nursing hours as many other nursing homes we assessed, it was still better than average in the area of preventing falls.
Short-term Care Quality
The last category we scored is short-term care. We gave it an F for this area, which is a bottom of the barrel grade. This is clearly a significant disappointment. Our short-term care ratings are based on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled highly skilled professionals. This includes a wide spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, in addition to other types of therapy. With a score this poor in this area, we were not surprised to discover that this facility was well below average in two of the key staffing areas we looked at. It supplied significantly fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most nursing homes. Finally, we assessed the number of patients that eventually returned home from this facility. This nursing home didn't fare well here either. In fact, we found that just 27.2 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was quite a bit off the national average.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Wheaton 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