Nhc Healthcare, Dickson

Nhc Healthcare, Dickson is one of only two available facilities located in Dickson, Tennessee. Sporting an overall rating of B+, this nursing home should work for most people. This facility definitely has plenty going for it. This place was better in some categories than others, but it did not have any poor grades in any of our major areas discussed below. More information about these categories can be found below.

To pair with a favorable overall grade, we awarded this place an A+ for inspections. Our inspection scores account for several factors included in a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we rely on is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area tend to have very few severe deficiencies. While this place had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Among the reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it was awarded a strong long-term care score. In fact, long-term care ended up being its second most impressive category grade. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A-. When facilities receive this type of score in this category it is usually a good sign for patient care and suggests that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses and aids. In addition to looking at the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is much higher than the vast majority of nursing homes. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.71 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had less hospitalizations than most nursing homes.

The third category we graded is short-term care. This facility was awarded an above average short-term care grade, with a grade of B in this category. In the category of short-term care, we strive to qualify indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical therapists. When we looked at this facility's physical therapist hours, we found it offered more hours of physical therapy per day to its residents than most nursing homes. The final item we assessed in this category is the percentage of residents who ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. It fared better than most facilities in this area with 51.4 percent of its residents returning home.

The final area we analyzed is nursing. This nursing home was awarded a better than average nursing grade this year, with a grade of C. Although this was not quite as good as many of its other category grades, this is nevertheless a respectable score in that area. Our nursing rating weighs a handful of subcategories, many of which are associated with levels of nurse staffing. Based on the data, it looks like this nursing home provides an impressive 4 hours per resident on a daily basis. This is more nursing care than most places provide. In determining our grades, we apply more weight to hours performed by more highly trained nurses such as registered or licensed nurses. Finally, this nursing home was relatively weak in some of the major metrics we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers.