Heritage Manor of Opelousas

While this nursing home's overall grade was decent, it really fared well in the category of inspections. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for that category, which is one of our best scores. Inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these items by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

Additionally, we also would like to draw your attention to the fact that this nursing home was awarded impressive long-term care marks this year. We awarded them one of our better scores in that category, with a grade of B+. This proved to be the facility's second strongest score. Nursing homes that receive this type of grade in long-term care typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are well cared for. In addition to considering the amount of care provided by nurses and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home gave the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is very impressive. Pneumonia can be a deadly illness for nursing home residents so we prefer when a nursing home doesn't take any chances. Lastly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

This facility's next best category was its nursing grade, where it received a grade of B-. Our nursing rating assesses the nursing home's level of nurse staffing. We look at both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the amount of time spent with residents. This particular nursing home provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This figure is significantly below average. Lastly, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics. Although this place got docked a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in some of these quality-based measures. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed remarkably well in this area. This is typically a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can typically be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning residents even once per day.

The next category we looked at was short-term care. We awarded this facility a grade of D for our short-term care category, making this the nursing home's least impressive area. In the area of short-term care, we strive to evaluate measures of a facility's rehabilitation services. We look at a facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other facilities. Finally, we looked at the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that just 4.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home.