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.

This nursing home was given a strong short-term care score as well. We gave it one of our better scores in that category with a score of B+. With our short-term care assessment, we attempt to create a sound barometer for rehabilitation services. In this process, we analyze the nursing home's offerings of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as respiratory therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.

This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. Our nursing grade consists of a handful of subcategories, most of which are associated with levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well when it comes to minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Moving on to our next area, this facility received a decent long-term care score. Even though this was not as elite as several of its other grades, this is really not a major area of concern. Our long-term care grade assesses a facility's assistance with daily living rather than the skilled nursing and medical services that are critical to a rehabilitation facility. After assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination record. Unfortunately, we were not able to track down this facility's vaccination rates. Lastly, this facility keeps 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.