Alpha Health & Rehab of Greer

This facility's best category grade came in the category of government inspections. In that area, we gave this nursing home a B+. It actually outperformed most facilities in this area. Inspection grades account for a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple of minor deficiencies shouldn't lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home also was awarded a positive score in our long-term care category. We awarded this facility a better than average grade of B+ in that category. Long-term care ratings of this caliber generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. After looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 96.27039 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. Finally, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This nursing home's nursing grade appears to be one of its better features. The facility received a grade of B- in this category. Our nursing grade looks at the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We factor in both the levels of licensure of the nurses as well as the amount of time spent with residents. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient per day, which is not an impressive total. Lastly, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this place got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in some of these quality-based metrics. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared well in this area. This can be a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as having a system of turning a resident more frequently.

The final area we looked at is short-term care, which is this nursing home's least impressive category. Sadly, it received an abysmal F for this area, which is certainly concerning. Our short-term care grades are believed to be more meaningful for patients needing a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically requires additional skilled nursing services. This means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Based on its poor rating in this area, we were not surprised to find this nursing home offered significantly fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per patient than most other nursing homes. Finally, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. This was not a strength for this nursing home. We found that just 3.9 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, about half of their residents are able to return home so this is well below average.