The Shoal: Data Analysis and Ratings

   The Most Important Data about The Shoal

We've looked at a lot of nursing homes, this is what we think you need to see first and if you don't want to spend a lot of time. (It's the tl;dr section.)

There is no indication of abuse occuring at The Shoal. (CMS flags facilities where abuse has either happened or is very likely.)

   General Data Card

These are the basic data points for the facility.

   What is this page all about?

Below is everything shred of information that we can find about F W Huston Medical Center, along with our best effort to make sense of the data. Our purpose here is to help you to make good decisions when picking a nursing home and to keep you informed once you have chosen a home. We know from personal experience that choosing a nursing home is not something you do once and then you forget about it. In fact, it gets worse. Once you select a nursing home and get through the initial steps of figuring out how to pay for it, then the real worries start. Are they taking good care of me or my loved one? This is the question that will keep you up at night: Can I really trust these people? We wish we could answer this question, we can't. What he can do is churn through the tons of data and try and help you to make sense of it. We hope it helps.

   Ratings History

   Review of The Shoal Ratings and Inspection Scores

CMS regularly inspects every skilled nursing facility. (The timing is supposed to be annually, but since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, these inspections have not occured as frequently.) The results of the multi-day inspection is reduced to a series of scores which are then translated into the star ratings. The health inspection scores are an absolute value, so you can compare one facility's score directly to another. The Overall Star rating is based on the facility's performance as compared to other facilities in the same state, so you cannot easily compare one facility's Overall star rating to a facility in another state.

It has been 14 months since the most recent inspection.

   What Goes Into the Nursing Home's 5-Star Rating

CMS has put a lot of effort into creating its very elaborate 5-Star Quality Rating System specifically to provide a quick way for residents and family members to easily understand how well a nursing home is performing and to make comparing nursing homes easier. The rating system allows people to easily compare facilities across numerous dimensions with the express purpose of identifying the best and best performing nursing homes. The rating system was initially developed in 2008 and the methodologies are regularly reviewed and updated.

The rating system has five separate ratings including:

• Overall rating
• Health Inspection rating
• Staff rating
• RN Staffing rating
• Quality Measures rating

Nursing homes are rated from 1-star to 5-stars with 1-star being the worst rating and 5-star being the best rating. For the Health Inspection Rating the nursing homes in each state are ranked based on their weighted three year inspection score. The top 10 percent of nursing homes (those with the lowest scores) are awarded a 5-star rating; the bottom 20 percent (those with the highest scores) are awarded a 1-star rating. In between 1-star and 5-star, the remaining homes are divided equally into three tranches which correspond with the stars 2 to 4. The staff ratings and quality measure ratings follow a similar process but the divisions are based on a national ranking. The division between star ratings is called the “cut-rate”. Cut-rates are redefined periodically and are published by CMS. See the latest cut rates on this table.

Calculating the Overall Star Rating is done differently. According to CMS, the reason for adopting a different system is to give the Health Inspection Rating higher weight in the Overall Rating. So, since there are FIVE ratings and FIVE stars for each rating, there must also be a FIVE step process to calculate the Overall Rating (so symetrical!) :

1. Begin with the Health Inspection Rating
2. Add one star to the Health Inspection Rating if the Staffing Rating is at least four-stars and is higher than the Health Inspection Rating. (We will call this the "Adjusted Rating".)
3. Subtract one star from the Health Inspection Rating if the Staffing Rating is one-star.
4. Add a star to the Adjusted Rating if the Quality Measure Rating is 5-stars.
5. Subtract one star from the Adjusted Rating if the Quality Measure Rating is 1-star.

Throughout the calculation of the Overall Rating, the rating cannot exceed 5-stars. The Overall Rating is capped at 2-stars if the Health Inspection rating is 1-star. No Overall Rating is awarded if the nursing home does not have a Health Inspection Rating (This effectively means that a nursing home is not rated until the home has been operating for more than two years.)

Changes in a nursing homes star rating can be due to the results of a new health inspection report, the processing of new complaints, the aging of older complaints, a new inspection control survey, a revisit, or the resolution of disputes that change the scope and or severity of deficiencies.

   Most Recent Nursing Home Inspections

CMS is required to inspect each senior nursing facility at least annually. These inspections take several days. Additional follow-up inspections as conducted as needed or for certain purposes. Inspections stopped for more than seven months in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. That stoppage has caused all inspections to be delayed as the inspectors continue to deal with a backlog. The table below shows the latest inspections for The Shoal including health, fire, and inspection control inspections:

No Inspection Information is Available

   Owner and Operator Information for The Shoal

Our database of owners and operators shows all direct owners of the nursing nurse, any managers and directors, and the most adjacent indirect owners of the facility (that is, if the direct owner is company, then the owners of that company.) Lists of nursing home owners are available and you can search for nursing home owners and operators on our site.

   Analysis of Nursing Hours Spent Per Patient

CMS provides detailed information about how long nursing staff spends with residents. This data includes nursing subcategories of Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse, and non-nursing Certified Nursing Assistants. More hours spend per patient should can indicate a better facility or it could indicate more complicated situations.

The nursing staff of The Shoal spends LESS time on average with its residents than the state average and LESS time than the national average for total nursing homes spent per resident.

   Quality Measures

Quality measures are based both on patient survey information and on the results of actual claims that are filed with CMS. It is not clear what period is covered in the measures.

   Hospitals Near The Shoal

Quite often skilled nursing facilities and hospitals work closely together to help patients recover or manage a terminal illness. Hospitals deals with acute care while nursing homes treat patients for a longer period of time. New residents at skilled nursing homes typically come from a hospital and nursing home residents may be readmitted to a hospital if their recovery does not proceed well. (Hospital readmission rates are closely monitored by CMS.) Consequently it is important that you consider which hospitals are near a nursing home which choosing one. Below is a list of hospitals near The Shoal.

This information is based on the most recent Hospital data. Historical data is not available.

   Medical Professionals Associated with The Shoal

These are the doctors who are affiliated with The Shoal. The data is from the most recent period. Historical data is not available.

• ROBIN ARMSTRONG ( INTERNAL MEDICINE - ARMSTRONG MEDICAL GROUP PLLC )
• TASO MOUGOURIS ( INTERNAL MEDICINE - XPERTMD )
• GARY SPANGLER ( FAMILY PRACTICE - PRIVIA MEDICAL GROUP GULF COAST PLLC )

   Other Local Nursing Homes

Below is a list of nursing homes in near The Shoal (including this home). This list is ranked based on the nursing home's health inspection scores (alse referred to as the "weighted all cycles score"). We also show the home's 5-star overall rating in the list. (If a nursing home has been flaged by CMS for abuse, we will added an icon () to the home to indicate this.)

The data is based on the dataset as of March 01, 2024.

   Detailed Analysis Pages:

Depending on the nursing home, this page can get really long. So, we have also broken up the data onto separate pages to allow you to find what you want more easily. We will keep adding to these pages as we continue to analyze the nursing home database.

   Other Data Periods:

Data on The Shoal is available for the following periods: