Welcome to the ProximCares Report.
This is Issue 01. No fluff. No sponsored facility recommendations. Just honest data from the only independent nursing home rating platform in Texas.
Every issue we publish has insights from our dataset of all 1,176 Texas nursing homes, scored using the same federal inspection data regulators use, with zero financial relationships with any facility we cover providing you with you with 100% transparency.
Why ProximCares?
I built ProximCares because I wanted to have a place where families can come and relax knowing they will not be taken advantage of just because of the circumstances. When you are trying to find care for someone you love, the internet sends you to websites that look helpful but are quietly getting paid by the facilities they recommend. You have no way of knowing that. The ratings look objective, the reviews seem too good to be true and the process feels trustworthy. It is not.
I wanted a place where the data was just the data. No referral fees changing what shows up at the top. No facilities paying for better placement. Just the federal inspection records that regulators already collect, organized in a way that a real family under real pressure can actually use. That is ProximCares and I hope it helps yours.
Where Our Data Comes From
Every number in this newsletter comes from CMS Nursing Home Care Compare, the federal database maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is the same data that federal regulators use to monitor nursing home quality across the country. It is publicly available, updated monthly, and collected through on-site inspections, staffing records, and complaint investigations. ProximCares does not create or estimate any of these figures. We organize them, score them, and present them in plain English so families do not have to navigate a government database under pressure. You can verify any data point we publish directly at medicare.gov. We encourage you to do so.
The State of Texas Nursing Homes
Most families start their nursing home search on Google and end up on platforms that get paid when you choose a facility. The recommendations you see are influenced by who pays the highest referral fees, not who provides the best care.
Here is what the unbiased data actually shows.
The average ProximCares score across all 1,176 Texas facilities is 53.2 out of 100. That is a below-average rating statewide. Most Texas nursing homes score in the bottom half of our scale.
830 out of 1,176 facilities have financial penalties on record. That is 71% of all Texas nursing homes. Penalties are issued by federal regulators for documented care failures.
Only 346 facilities, less than 30% of the total, have a clean penalty record.
The Texas average for RN hours per resident per day is 0.42. The national benchmark recommended by researchers is 0.75. Texas facilities are staffing at roughly half the recommended level on average.
City Spotlight: Why Location Matters More Than You Think
Not all Texas cities are equal when it comes to nursing home quality. The gap between cities is significant.
For example:
Plano leads the state with an average score of 62.7. Houston follows at 61.2. San Antonio sits at 51.2. El Paso averages just 35.9, the lowest of any major Texas city.
The El Paso story is worth understanding. The city has the lowest average nursing home score in Texas, yet it has the highest no-penalty rate at 33%. This means facilities there avoid financial penalties while still scoring poorly on quality measures like staffing and inspection citations. Penalty-free does not mean high quality. These are two different things, and families need to understand the difference.
Corpus Christi tells the opposite story. The average score of 62.1 is above the state average, but every single nursing home in Corpus Christi has at least one financial penalty on record. Zero facilities with a clean record. This is the kind of nuance that gets completely lost when you rely on a star rating alone.
What Families Are Actually Searching For
We track what search queries bring families to ProximCares. One stood out this week.
Someone typed "worst nursing homes in Houston" into Google and found us.
That matters because it tells us something important. Families do not just want to find the best facility. They want to know which ones to avoid. They want the honest negative data that referral platforms will never show them because those platforms get paid by the facilities they are supposed to be rating objectively.
ProximCares shows everything. Every facility. Every score. No hiding the poor performers.
Check Your City
You can explore current scores for nursing homes in your area at proximcares.com. Every facility is scored monthly using the latest federal inspection data.
Transparency layers
A note on how we operate. ProximCares earns no referral fees from nursing homes, ever. Our revenue comes from voluntary reader support and advertising from senior service providers who have zero influence over our ratings. If this newsletter helped you or someone you know, you can support us here: Support ProximCares
Conclusion
That is it for Issue 01. If you found this useful, forward it to someone who is navigating a care decision right now. They probably do not know this data exists and they deserve to.
Your family deserves honest answers.
That is why we are here.
Until then, check your city at proximcares.com.
Theron Harris Founder, ProximCares