NHC HealthCare Kingsport

To pair with its strong overall score, we gave this place an A+ for our inspections rating. Our inspection scores weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this area usually have very few of these severe deficiencies. Unfortunately, we weren't able to track down deficiency data for this nursing home. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

In addition, this facility received superb marks in the area of short-term care. Consequently, it received one of our most impressive grades in that category with a grade of A+. In computing our short-term care grades, we look at the nursing home's levels of skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other types of therapists. This rating is more often than not a useful assessment of a nursing home's rehabilitation. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 7.1 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

Compounding its strong assessment, this nursing home also was awarded an excellent long-term care grade, with a grade of A-. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in long-term care it is usually a good sign for resident care and indicates that the nursing home is well-staffed with nurses aids. One of the statistics we considered in addition to nursing hours is vaccinations. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 100 percent of its patients. This is a great way to minimize unnecessary deaths for the senior population. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The last area we analyzed is nursing, where this nursing home was awarded a B. Even though this is its poorest category rating, this is nevertheless a quality grade. The nursing grade analyzes many data points, many of which are tied to quantities of nurse staffing. This particular nursing home provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also factored a few quality-based metrics into our nursing grades. This place was relatively weak in two of the major areas we focus on, with below average scores for minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care provided.