52 North Carolina Nursing Homes Make US News ‘Best’ Ratings

NORTH CAROLINA — U.S. News & World Report’s annual ratings of the best nursing homes in the country include 52 in North Carolina. Just under 3,000 nursing homes in the country earned the designation of being a “U.S. News Best Nursing Home” for 2019-20.

Homes were given an overall rating, a rating for short-term rehabilitation care and a new rating this year that evaluates long-term care.

“This year, we introduced a long-term care rating,” Zach Adams, a senior health data analyst at U.S. News, told Patch. “This is for people who need ongoing daily assistance in stuff like health-related and personal care.”

The overall ratings for nursing homes in 2019-20 are based exclusively on the short-term and long-term care ratings, Adams said.

A strong emphasis was placed on staffing in methodology to compile the “U.S. News Best Nursing Home” ranking for 2019-20. Adams said staffing levels are strongly associated with quality and safety.

“We think everyone deserves to get the right amount of time and attention,” Adams said, explaining that the publication measured the percentage of days a nursing home met the federal standards for registered nurse staffing. In addition to having sufficient staff overall, the publication wanted to make sure nursing homes are still meeting some threshold on their less well-staffed days.

Patient outcomes — both positive and negative — are also a key part of the methodology.

In North Carolina, 11 homes received the highest overall rating of five, 43 homes received a high-performing rating for short-term care and 14 homes received a high-performing rating for long-term care.

Here are all the North Carolina nursing homes rated as “high-performing”:

Short Term High Performance

• Hillcrest Convalescent Center, Durham
• Highland Farms, Black Mountain
• Carolina Village, Hendersonville
• Aston Park Health Care Center, Asheville
• Iredell Memorial Hospital, Statesville
• Willowbrooke Court Skilled Care Center at Plantation Estates, Matthews
• Wilkes Regional Medical Center, North Wilkesboro
• Bermuda Village Retirement Center, Bermuda Run
• Friends Homes West, Greensboro
• Brookdale Carriage Club Providence, Charlotte
• Transylvania Regional Hospital, Brevard
• Croasdaile Village, Durham
• Whitestone — A Masonic and Eastern Star Community, Greensboro
• Cypress Glen Retirement Community, Greenville
• The Arbor, Pittsboro
• Deerfield Episcopal Retirement, Asheville
• Sharon Towers, Charlotte
• Davis Health & Wellness Center at Cambridge Village, Wilmington
• Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community, Winston-Salem
• The Oaks at Whitaker Glen — Mayview, Raleigh
• The Foley Center at Chestnut Ridge, Blowing Rock
• Jesse Helms Nursing Center, Monroe
• Trinity Village, Hickory
• Carol Woods, Chapel Hill
• Brookridge Retirement Community, Winston-Salem
• The Lodge at Mills River, Mills River
• Givens Health Center, Asheville
• Peak Resources — Alamance, Graham
• Courtland Terrace, Gastonia
• Rex Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center, Raleigh
• Smoky Mountain Health and Rehabilitation Center, Waynesville
• Brian Center Southpoint, Durham
• Western North Carolina Baptist Home, Asheville
• The Laurels of Summit Ridge, Asheville
• Brookshire Nursing Center, Hillsborough
• Life Care Center of Hendersonville, Hendersonville
• The Stewart Health Center, Charlotte
• UNC Rex Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center of Apex, Apex
• Autumn Care of Nash, Nashville
• Universal Health Care — Fletcher
• Hillcrest Raleigh at Crabtree Valley, Raleigh
• Azalea Health & Rehab Center, Wilmington
• Carolina Bay Healthcare Center of Wilmington

Long Term High Performance

• Highland Farms, Black Mountain
• Carolina Village, Hendersonville
• Longleaf Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, Wilson
• Aston Park Health Care Center, Asheville
• Croasdaile Village, Durham
• Whitestone — A Masonic and Eastern Star Community, Greensboro
• Deerfield Episcopal Retirement, Asheville
• Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, Black Mountain
• O’Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, Goldsboro
• Trinity Oaks, Salisbury
• Pender Memorial Hospital Skilled Nursing Facility, Burgaw
• Silver Bluff, Canton
• The Presbyterian Home of Hawfields, Mebane
• The Rosewood Health Center, Raleigh

“Our ratings are really a starting point that we think should be used in conjunction with other sources,” Adams said, stressing that the ratings aren’t a replacement for site visits.

But for those who don’t have the time and resources to conduct such an in-depth search, Adams said U.S. News wants to offer people a really rich set of information that’s both easy to use, understandable and applicable to their situation.

>>>See U.S. News’ nursing home finder.

U.S. News used data collected and published by the federal government to develop the nursing home ratings. (Read more about the methodology.)