Windcrest Health & Rehabilitation

Windcrest Health & Rehabilitation is an average-sized nursing home located in Abilene, Texas. We gave this facility an overall score of B, which is a strong rating. As a matter of fact, this is one of the three highest graded nursing homes in Abilene. Even with Abilene offering 11 nursing homes to choose from, this facility ought to be a perfectly acceptable choice. This nursing home's strong report card was highlighted by its inspection reports, which we will address in the next paragraph.

This nursing home received a quality overall grade as described above, but we especially want to emphasize its nearly flawless inspections in recent years. We gave them an A+ in this area. Inspection scores 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. Facilities with higher scores in this area usually have very few severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This means CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in this industry.

This nursing home earned high grades in nursing as well. In fact, it earned one of our highest scores in that category with an B-. Nursing grades are largely tied to the facility's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 3.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these subcategories. With less than five percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed well in this metric. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a policy of moving residents more frequently.

We also awarded this facility a middle of the pack grade in the category of short-term care, where it received a B-. In our short-term care category, we strive to forge a meaningful measure for rehabilitation services. In this process, we look at a facility's offerings of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. One of this nursing home's strengths is physical therapy hours. We found that it offers more hours with physical therapists to its residents than most facilities. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. This place outperformed the majority of facilities in the nation with 50 percent of its residents returning home. This is a better rate than most facilities.

The next area we looked at was long-term care. We gave it a B- in this area. This is a decent grade in this category. For prospective residents looking for a permanent residence rather than skilled nursing, long-term care grades are very important. On top of considering the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility provided the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is an above average percentage. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.28 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has fewer hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes.