Heart of the Ozarks Healthcare Center

The primary reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an excellent inspection score. In fact, its inspection score was far superior to its overall score. In our inspections category, we gave it a grade of A. Our inspection ratings account for several factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area tend to have very few severe deficiencies. Although this nursing home had a few deficiencies on its government inspection report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A couple of minor deficiencies shouldn't stop you from considering a nursing home.

One of the other reasons we graded this nursing home so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In fact, nursing turned out to be its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this facility a grade of B-. Nursing grades are based in large part on quality and quantity of nursing care. This place provides 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient daily. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics. Although this nursing home got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in a few of these quality metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it did remarkably well in this subcategory. This is generally an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as by having a system of turning patients at least once a day.

This facility's next highest category was short-term care. In that category, we awarded this facility a C. In our short-term care grade, we strive to forge a meaningful gauge for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at the nursing home's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. We were surprised to find that this place was below average in the two key staffing areas we assessed. The facility provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who eventually returned home from this nursing home. We found that 3.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was well below the national average.

The last area we scored was long-term care, which is this facility's least impressive area. We gave this facility a grade of D in that category. For long-term care residents, the facility's primary goal is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. In addition to considering the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This facility provided the vaccine to 99.612404 percent of its patients, which is higher than the majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.01 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home has fewer hospitalizations than the average nursing home. Sadly, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.