Briarcliff Health Center of Greenville

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this nursing home performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A+. These inspection scores weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that CMS did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This nursing home was given impressive scores in the category of long-term care as well. Consequently, it received one of our most dominant grades in that category with a score of A. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to make sure residents are well cared for. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents out of the hospital. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next highest grade we gave this nursing home came in the category of nursing, where we gave it a grade of C. This wasn't quite as good as some of its other scores, but a grade in this range is not the end of the world. Our nursing rating is mostly tied to a facility's nurse staffing. This facility averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which is well below average. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this facility surprisingly excelled in some of the quality measures we looked at. In fact, it scored well when it comes to minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. Many consider these areas to be reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care. In many cases, the quality of nursing care is as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.

The last category we looked at was short-term care. Sadly, it received an abysmal F for this category, which is a poor grade. We would not simply disregard a nursing home because of a single weak category though. In the category of short-term care, we strive to qualify measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The final statistic we looked at in this category is the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. This facility struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 4.8 percent of its residents returning home. This was well below the national average.