Diversicare of Oak Ridge

This nursing home earned a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its nearly flawless government inspection reports in recent years. We awarded them an A- in this category. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This place was assessed 5 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This means that the inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to be an imminent threat to resident safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This facilities next most favorable category was short-term care. We awarded it a C in this area. This is essentially a slightly below average grade in this area. In computing our short-term care ratings, we look at a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This category is frequently a reliable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility offered fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who returned home from this facility. We found that 5.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was well below the national average.

This facility's next best category grade came in the area of nursing. In that category, we gave this nursing home a grade of C. We analyzed the qualifications of nurses employed by the facility, in addition to the number of hours those nurses were with patients, in computing our grade in this category. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this place fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. It scored well in the area of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.

The next area we scored is long-term care. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a C. In a long-term care setting, the facility's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home vaccinated 98.70968 percent of its patients, which is more than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.