Bayou Pines Care Center

In addition to receiving a great overall score, this nursing home also received top notch health inspections in recent years. We awarded them one of our higher grades in this category, with an A+. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors included in a facility's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. Remember that deficiency-free inspections are rare in this industry.

Additionally, this nursing home also was given favorable long-term care grades this year. Indeed, we gave it one of our more favorable grades in that category, with a score of B+. When facilities receive a grade in this range in long-term care it generally means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to reside on a permanent basis. On top of looking at the quantity of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 99.03537 percent of its patients, which is an impressive figure. Pneumonia sadly can be a dangerous health condition for nursing home residents so we strongly prefer when a nursing home does not take any chances. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.

The next highest grade we gave this nursing home came in the category of nursing, where we gave it a grade of B-. This wasn't quite as good as some of its other scores, but a grade in this range is not the end of the world. Nursing ratings are mostly based on a facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient each day. This is a relatively low total compared with most other nursing homes. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality-based metrics. While this place got dinged a bit for nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its patients experiencing pressure ulcers, it did well in this area. This is often an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a policy of moving a patient even once per day.

The last category we scored was short-term care, which was this facility's worst area. We gave this nursing home a grade of D in this category. Of course, this category hurt the facility's overall grade to some degree. In computing our short-term care grades, we look at the facility's levels of skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists respiratory therapists and other licensed professionals. This grade is often a meaningful assessment of the facility's rehabilitation. It looks like this nursing home was subpar in multiple staffing metrics we focus on. It provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. The last item we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents that were able to return home from the facility. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this area as well, with just 4.8 percent of its patients returning home.