Blue Ridge in the Fields

While this nursing home's overall score was not a highlight, it actually really excelled in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it an A- for that category, which is one of our best scores. Inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this facility had a few 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 didn't consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple minor deficiencies aren't the end of the world.

This nursing home actually received a decent grade in the area of nursing as well. We awarded it a grade of C for that category, which is not a bad score. Nursing ratings are tied to quantity of nursing care available. This nursing home provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This figure is significantly below the national average. Lastly, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this place got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in some of these quality metrics. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed well in this statistic. This is generally an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as having a protocol of moving a patient more frequently.

The next highest category we awarded this facility in any category came in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a grade of C. In the category of short-term care, we try to evaluate measures of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility supplied fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.

The next area we rated was long-term care, which proved to be this nursing home's worst area. We gave this nursing home a D in that category. When nursing homes receive this type of score in this category it is a bad sign for patient care and it may mean that the facility is not as well-staffed. On top of assessing the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. We found that this facility administered the vaccine to only 54.666668 percent of its residents, which is quite a bit lower than we expected. Surprisingly, this facility actually fared well at keeping its patients out of the hospital. It had just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. This was its best score in this category.