Whispering Pines Rehabilitation and Nursing Center

In addition to performing well in its overall grade, this nursing home performed at an even higher level in the area of inspections. In fact, it received a nearly flawless inspection report this year. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that category with a score of A-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection grades. One of those factors is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some of these end up being quite minor. This nursing home was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered to be major deficiencies. This indicates that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies to cause an immediate risk to patient health or safety. A couple minor dings are not something to panic about.

One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. Nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility an B+. Our nursing score analyzes the nursing home's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of licensure of the nurses and the number of hours spent with residents. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a place has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

In addition, this facility also received favorable short-term care grades this year. In fact, we gave it one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. In determining our short-term care scores, we look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to formulate a barometer for comparing the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the facility and return to the community. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home.

The next area we analyzed was long-term care, in which this facility was given a grade of B-. This ended up being this facility's least impressive category. This is still not the end of the world. In our long-term care grade, we analyze the sheer volume of care offered by a facility, as well as a handful of quality metrics. After looking at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then looked at the facility's vaccination data. It does not appear that this nursing home submitted information about vaccinations. Lastly, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.