Peak Resources-Outer Banks

One of the reasons this turned out to be a quality facility is that it earned an impressive inspection score. Inspections turned out to be its best category grade. In this area, we gave this facility an A. Inspection ratings account for several factors included in a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher grades in this category generally have few of these severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to this facility's list of accomplishments, it also was given a very favorable long-term care score. We awarded them an elite grade of A- in this area. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care tend to provide residents with closer supervision and stay on top of routine medical care. After considering the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination statistics. This nursing home vaccinated 99.2126 percent of its patients for pneumonia. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to our next category, this nursing home also received a score of B for its short-term care rating. This is an above average score in this category. Our short-term care scores are vital for patients seeking rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually requires higher levels of skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing means a vast range of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who eventually returned home from this nursing home. We found that 5.2 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

The last area we scored was nursing. We gave this nursing home a decent grade in that area, with a grade of C. While this wasn't as strong as several of its other scores, it is still not a major area of concern. Nursing scores are tied to levels of nurse staffing. This facility provides only 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a somewhat alarming figure as it is well below the national average. Finally, we also baked a few quality-based metrics into our nursing ratings. This nursing home was relatively weak in two of the major areas we look at, with below average scores for minimizing its patients' major falls and pressure ulcers. These areas are generally reliable measures of the quality of nursing care available.