The Cedars of Chapel Hill

The Cedars of Chapel Hill is one of four available facilities in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. With an overall rating of A+, this nursing home is one of the most impressive nursing homes we looked at. We were so impressed with this nursing home that we ranked it as one of the top five facilities in North Carolina. If you scroll down, you can see this nursing home's category scores, which appear to be equally impressive as its overall score.

One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection grades. One critical factor is deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite minor. While this place had some minor dings on its report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G through L. This tells you that CMS did not 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.

This nursing home also received an A+ for its nursing grade. Our nursing score is mostly tied to a facility's level of nurse staffing. This facility provides an incredible 6.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day. Out of this total, many of the hours were provided by registered nurses, which is one of the most highly trained levels of nurses. On top of offering high levels of care, this facility also excelled in several of the quality-based metrics we assessed. With below 5 percent of its patients suffering from pressure ulcers, it fared as well as any facility the state in this category.

In the next category we looked at, this nursing home received dominant marks in the area of long-term care. As a result, it was given one of our best grades in that category with a of A+. Long-term care scores in this range generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. On top of offering elite levels of nursing care and other staffing, this facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are critical to keeping residents healthy. This combination proved to be effective as this nursing home also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 0 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

In the last area we analyzed, this facility was awarded first-rate scores in the area of short-term care also. As a result, it was given an A+. This rendered it one of an elite handful of facilities we gave A+'s in all of our categories. In the category of short-term care, we endeavor to assess indicators of a facility's rehabilitation services. We analyze a nursing home's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Remarkably, this place provides roughly one and a half times as many hours of services from physical therapists and registered nurses than most nursing homes we assessed. The last metric we assessed in this area is the number of residents that ultimately were able to return home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home rather than remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.