Cheraw Healthcare

One of the reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is it received an A+ inspection grade. This is as good as it gets in this critical category. Our inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we weigh heavily is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this category generally have very few severe deficiencies. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also want to point out the fact that this nursing home was awarded a superb score of A in our long-term care category. Nursing homes that excel in long-term care tend to provide patients with better supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. After considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which is far higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. The nursing grade analyzes quite a few subcategories, many of which are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

The last category we graded is short-term care. In that category, we gave this nursing home a solid grade of C. This actually turned out to be this nursing home's weakest area. Our short-term care scores are likely most meaningful for patients in need of rehabilitation from their nursing home. Rehabilitation generally mandates additional skilled nursing services. This means not only nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Finally, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 3.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.