Nhc Healthcare, Knoxville

While we gave this facility a bad overall rating, we actually gave it a fairly respectable grade in the category of inspections, where we gave it a grade of B-. This was quite a bit better than its other categories. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in determining our inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the number of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite minor. This nursing home was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be major deficiencies. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to be an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, CMS flagged this nursing home for possible abuse or neglect. This is not what you want to see. We advise you to direct your search elsewhere.

We also ended up giving this facility a fairly respectable grade in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of B-. Our nursing rating is based on many factors. The most important variable is the number of hours nurses spent with patients. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Lastly, although this place got dinged a bit for its nursing hours, it excelled in some of our quality metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared very well in this area.

This nursing home received its next highest category grade in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a B- in this category, which is a reasonably acceptable score. In computing our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other highly skilled individuals. This score is frequently a reliable assessment of the facility's rehabilitation. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we assessed. It supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Finally, we assessed the number of residents that eventually returned home from this facility. We found that 6 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually well below the national average.

The next area we rated was long-term care. We awarded it a grade of B- in that category. This is not a bad grade in this area. In a long-term care environment, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia, which is more than the vast majority of nursing homes. This place also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.