Choctaw Nation Nursing Home

In addition to receiving a great overall score, this place also received first-rate inspections in recent years. We awarded it one of our higher scores in this category, with an A-. Inspection ratings weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection reports. One key criteria we rely on is the number and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with higher scores in this area tend to have few of these severe deficiencies. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones found in categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. The fact that the deficiencies were relatively minor made us feel better about this inspection report.

This facility is also above average in the area of short-term care, where it was given a grade of B+. It performed more favorably than most nursing homes in this category. Short-term care grades are typically used to judge a nursing home's rehabilitation services. To offer good rehabilitation services, nursing homes generally need to have higher levels of highly skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes registered nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and other highly trained professionals. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this area is the percentage of patients who ultimately returned home from the nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home as opposed to remaining at the nursing home on a permanent basis.

Adding to its profile, this facility also earned a grade of B+ for its nursing rating. This is a well above average score in this category. Nursing scores are heavily correlated with nurse staffing levels. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 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 facility Oklahoma in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as employing a protocol of turning patients even once per day.

The last category we looked at is long-term care, is this nursing home's worst area. We awarded this facility a D in that area. This really was one of the couple of weak points in a strong report card. For long-term care residents, the facility's primary objective is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. After considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. To our surprise, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0.04 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes. Unfortunately, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.