Windsor Chico Care Center

This nursing home really excelled in our short-term care category, with an impressive grade of A- in this area. Our short-term care grades are presumably most meaningful for patients needing rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing includes not only nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other types of therapy. This nursing home employs both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities employ these skilled professionals. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. This proved to be a real strength for this facility. This place outperformed the vast majority of facilities in the nation with 65.5 percent of its residents returning home. This is a significantly higher rate than most facilities.

This nursing home also received a strong grade in our nursing category. We awarded this nursing home an above average grade of B in this area. Nursing scores are mostly associated with a facility's level of nurse staffing. With 3.9 hours of nursing care per resident per day, this nursing home surpassed the national average. Finally, this facility also excelled in several quality-based metrics we looked at. With fewer than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any facility the nation in this category. This is generally an indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Many pressure ulcers can be avoided by providing better nursing care and having a policy of moving residents even once per day.

We also awarded this facility a middle of the road score in the area of long-term care, where it received a grade of B-. In computing our long-term care scores, we analyze the assistance with daily living offered to a nursing home's residents. On top of looking at the impressive level of care provided by aids and other staff at this nursing home, we also were impressed by the facility's vaccination record. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to 98.86363 percent of its patients, which is an impressive total. Finally, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. Although it had 2.34 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, its risk adjusted score was better than most nursing homes due to it having more complex patients.

Turning to the last category we assessed, this facility received a good score in the area of inspections as well. In fact, we awarded it a B- for that category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing these inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some are relatively insignificant. 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. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.