Whispering Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation
50 Wolverton Ave, Ripon WI 54971 · (920) 748-5638 · 53% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Whispering Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation is the only nursing home located in Ripon, Wisconsin. We awarded this nursing home an A overall grade, ranking it in the top fifth of all nursing homes in the nation. This is just about as good of a place as you're going to find. Headlining this place's exemplary report card is its nursing grade, which you can find in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 50 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
One of the many reasons this turned out to be a great nursing home is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. Our nursing score is primarily associated with the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home offers 3.6 hours of nursing care per resident per day, of which more than one hour of those were provided by registered nurses. This is one of the more highly trained levels of nurses. In computing our nursing ratings, we attach more significance to hours performed by registered or licensed nurses. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home Wisconsin in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident at least once a day.
Facility Inspections
Adding to its impressive category scores, this nursing home also excelled in the area of inspections, where it earned an A. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in computing our inspection ratings. One key factor is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some are relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are found in categories G through L. This means the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are uncommon in the industry.
Short-term Care Quality
Turning the page to our next category, we gave this nursing home a score of A- for its short-term care score. This is a very strong score. Our short-term care grades are arguably more critical for people in need of rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally requires additional highly-skilled nursing services. This means not merely nursing services, but also physical and speech therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. This nursing home provides more services with physical therapists and registered nurses than most nursing homes we looked at. This is usually a favorable sign. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that it outperformed the majority of facilities in the country with 52.8 percent of its residents returning home. This is a higher rate than most nursing homes.
Long-term Care Quality
The final area we rated was long-term care. In that category, we gave this facility an above average grade of B. Facilities that do well in this category typically are well-staffed and provide extensive hands on care to residents. After we finished looking at the amount of care provided by nurses, we next considered the facility's vaccination data. This nursing home vaccinated 98.52941 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly can be a dangerous health condition for nursing home patients so we like it when a nursing home doesn't leave its residents vulnerable. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Whispering Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can minimize the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of long-term residents that had a fall which caused major injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing scores.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term stay patients that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's could be an indicator of lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this statistic could also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications may be vital to many residents, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term patients taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of patients who are demonstrating signs of depression. High rates of depression could imply worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for seniors, making these vaccines important for resident well-being.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and bathing. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients that retained mobility levels. Some experts would argue that mobility is vital to residents' mental and physical well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term resident care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding emergency medical situations is one way to gauge short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better