White River Healthcare

This facility received a quality overall grade as described above, but we especially want to emphasize its nearly flawless government inspections in recent years. We awarded it an A- in this category. Our inspection ratings are tied to items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category tend to have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these facilities should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had zero severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This tells you the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A few minor dings are not necessarily the end of the world.

This facility is also strong in the category of short-term care, where it received a grade of B. It outperformed most facilities in this area. In forming our short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. Our goal is to create a barometer for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. It doesn't appear that this nursing home provided data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. Lastly, we considered the number of residents that were able to return home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Turning to the next area, this nursing home also earned a grade of B for its long-term care rating. This is an above average score in this category. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically provide patients with more supervision and stay on top of routine healthcare services. On top of assessing the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccines are vital to keeping residents healthy. Clearly, this nursing home is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

Turning to our final area, this facility was awarded a respectable nursing grade of B-. Our nursing score weighs a handful of factors, but the most important one is the quantity of nurse hours spent with patients. This place provides only 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient per day. This is a somewhat uninspiring figure which is well below the national average. Finally, we look at quality-based metrics, such as the percentage of patients who sustained pressure ulcers and major falls. Sometimes these data points are decent indicators of the quality of nursing care.