Carol Woods

To pair with its strong overall score, we awarded this place an A+ for our inspections rating. Arguably the most critical factor we consider in calculating our inspection ratings is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Facilities with higher scores in this area typically dodged the most severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility excelled in our nursing rating. We awarded them an impressive grade of A+ in this category. Nursing ratings are mostly associated with a facility's nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place North Carolina in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by employing a system of moving residents more frequently.

This facility also was awarded a high-end short-term care score. This actually ended up being this nursing home's third strongest category score. In that category, we awarded this facility a score of A. In calculating our short-term care ratings, we size up a nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This rating is considered to be a solid assessment of a facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final metric we looked at in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that 5.2 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

In our last category, this facility also was given a very strong long-term care rating, with an A. This rounded out an elusive straight A profile. Nursing homes that receive this kind 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 quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is significantly higher than most nursing homes. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.