Cherokee Center

In addition to earning a strong overall score, this facility performed even better in the area of inspections which is based on the facility's recent government inspections. In fact, we awarded it an A for this category, which is one of our highest grades. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection ratings. One of those factors is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being relatively minor. This nursing home received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This means that CMS didn't deem any of the deficiencies to be an immediate risk to patient health or safety. We should note that deficiency-free inspection reports are rare in this industry.

This facility is also above average in the area of short-term care, where it was given a score of B+. It outperformed most nursing homes in this category. Our short-term care scores are probably more critical for individuals requiring rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation typically mandates more highly-skilled nursing. This means not merely nursing, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final item we looked at in this area is the number of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Turning to the category of nursing care, this facility didn't perform quite as well in this area as some of the categories discussed above. Nevertheless, a grade of B- in this category is by no means a bad score. Our nursing score considers several subcategories. The most heavily weighted variable is the amount of time nurses spend with patients. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility excelled in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It scored well in the area of avoiding major falls and pressure ulcers.

The next category we analyzed is long-term care. We gave this nursing home a B- in this category. Long-term care grades are commonly used to grade a facility's performance as a traditional convalescent home, as opposed to focusing more on the skilled nursing services offered by a rehabilitation facility. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. Fortunately, this facility vaccinated 97.923874 percent of its residents, which is an above average statistic. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.