Oak Ridge Health and Rehabilitation

This nursing home received an inspection grade which is better than its overall score. Inspection ratings are tied to a facility's recent inspections. We awarded this nursing home an above average grade of B in this area. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in calculating these inspection ratings. One key factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more important than the number of deficiencies, as some are quite insignificant. This facility was hit with 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies an immediate threat to resident safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

We also gave this nursing home a positive score in long-term care. This nursing home received a B in this area, which happens to be one of our higher grades. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine medical care. We want to point out that we seem to be missing some data on this facility's long-term care metrics, but we were satisfied with the data we found.

The next highest grade we gave this nursing home in any area came in the category of nursing, where we gave it a grade of B-. Our nursing score looks at the facility's nurse staffing levels. We consider both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the quantity of hours spent with patients. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Lastly, while this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it excelled in a few of our quality-based measures. With less than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed remarkably well in this subcategory.

Switching gears to the fourth area, this nursing home was awarded an acceptable short-term care grade of C. Short-term care grades are often used to grade a facility's rehabilitation services. To offer high-end rehabilitation services, nursing homes generally need to feature higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists and other types of therapists. In this nursing home's case, we were surprised to learn that it actually provides less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the typical facility. The hope is always that this does not adversely impact the quality of care. The last item we assessed in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home, which is below average.