Willow Ridge Healthcare

Willow Ridge Healthcare is one of just a couple available facilities in Amery, Wisconsin. Featuring an overall rating of F, we consider this to be a very poor nursing home. Based on our ratings, this facility is not a good fit for anyone. We wouldn't blame you if you're ready to stop reading and find another nursing home. However, if you want to learn more about this facility's category grades, inspection grades are discussed in the next paragraph.

While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable inspection report this year. As a result, it received a decent grade in that category with a score of B-. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection scores. One of those factors is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be relatively minor. 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 was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.

We were also stunned to learn that this facility earned a solid short-term care grade in our assessment. We gave it a grade of B- in this category. Short-term care ratings are important for prospective residents seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a vast range of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. In this place's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less registered nurse and physical therapist hours per patient than the typical facility. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. This proved to be more of a strength for this facility. In fact, we found that it outperformed the majority of facilities in the country with 54.2 percent of its patients returning home.

Remarkably, we awarded this nursing home a grade of C for our nursing rating, which isn't a bad grade. When computing our nursing grades, we assess both nursing hours and the levels of licensure of the nurses. This facility provided just 2.9 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Finally, despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this facility actually performed admirably in the area of preventing major falls. This is often a good indicator that a nursing home has sufficient quality controls in place.

The last area we graded was long-term care. It received a lowly F for this area, which is an abysmal score. For residents seeking a permanent residence as opposed to skilled nursing, long-term care is an important category. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 94.04762 percent of its patients, which is more than most nursing homes. To our surprise, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.22 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in the category were not as favorable as these.