White Oak Manor - Newberry

To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for our inspections rating. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One of the most important criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area usually have few of these severe deficiencies. This facility was assessed 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This means that the government inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies an immediate threat to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also was awarded a favorable long-term care grade. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category tend to provide consistent around the clock care to ensure residents are kept in good health. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 97.81421 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia is too frequently a life threatening illness for nursing home residents so we prefer when a nursing home doesn't roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

Another one of this facility's impressive category grades came in the area of nursing care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B+. We assessed the skill-level of nurses at the nursing home, in addition to the number of hours those nurses worked with patients, in computing our rating in this category. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality measures and this place 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 the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident more often.

The last category we rated was short-term care. In that area, we awarded this facility a strong grade of B. In crafting our short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to devise a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Fortunately, it appear that this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. However, according to the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The final statistic we assessed in this area is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 5.2 percent of this facility's patients returned home.