Pruitthealth-Aiken

Although we graded this nursing home extremely poorly overall, it received a somewhat respectable nursing rating this year. We gave it a B- in this category. The nursing grade considers a variety of factors. The most heavily weighted one is the number of hours nurses spent with patients. This place averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day, which is well below average. Despite having low quantities of nursing care, this nursing home fared better in some of the quality-based metrics we assessed. In fact, it performed well in the area of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. Many consider these areas to be indicators of the quality of nursing care. In some cases, the quality of nursing care is every bit as important as the quantity of hours of care provided.

This nursing home also didn't grade out poorly in the category of long-term care. In fact, we awarded it a B- in that area, which happens to be another one of its more favorable grades. For long-term care residents, the primary objective is to keep patients as healthy and safe as possible. This is different than skilled nursing or short-term care where the goal is to rehabilitate patients. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 92.495316 percent of its residents. This is somewhat lower than we were hoping for but still a reasonably acceptable percentage. Nevertheless, this place excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

We were also stunned to find that this nursing home earned a solid short-term care score in our assessment. We awarded it a grade of C in that area. In the category of short-term care, we strive to evaluate indicators of a facility's rehabilitation. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and various therapists. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we focus on. The facility offered fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other facilities. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the number of residents that were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that just 4.5 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

Turning the final category of inspections, this nursing home fared very poorly. Sadly, it received an F in our inspection category. This is our most heavily weighted category in our overall scoring system. For facilities with bad inspection grades, you should focus on any severe deficiencies found on their recent inspection reports. This particular nursing home was assessed a deficiency on its inspection report. Fortunately, it wasn't in a category that suggests that it created a threat to resident safety or health. 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.