Wilkes Health & Rehabilitation

On top of 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. Our inspection scores are tied to several pieces of information found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that score well in this area tend to have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these facilities should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. This particular nursing home received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report. Overall, this is still a good inspection report, but we'd always recommend looking into any deficiencies you find troubling.

This facility was given an impressive short-term care grade as well. We awarded it one of our better scores in that area with a grade of B+. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to qualify indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We assess the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all facilities employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The final datapoint we considered in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's patients were able to return home.

This facility was awarded a favorable long-term care grade as well. We awarded it one of our higher grades in that category with a score of B. Long-term care grades of this caliber generally require both around the clock care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 97.26962 percent of its patients, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia tragically can be a deadly ailment for nursing home patients so we like it when a facility doesn't leave this to chance. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The final area we looked at is nursing. We gave it a C in that area. This is a fair grade in this category. Nursing ratings are heavily correlated with nurse staffing levels. This nursing home averages just 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures. Although this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in a few of these quality-based measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed very well in this statistic. This is often an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by employing a policy of moving a patient more often.