Ochsner Medical Center Skilled Nursing Facility

In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Our inspection grades weigh a host of factors found on a facility's inspection report. One key criteria we consider is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Places with higher scores in this area tend to have very few severe deficiencies. Amazingly, this was one of the few nursing homes in the country that had no deficiencies whatsoever on its inspection report. This is very impressive. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

This facility also received an A+ for its short-term care score. Our short-term care scores are meaningful for residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally utilizes more highly-skilled nursing. This means a broad scope of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this facility employs registered nurses. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, according to the information they provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Finally, we looked at the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 6 percent of this nursing home's residents were able to return home.

We also awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for its nursing grade. Nursing grades are primarily tied to a facility's nurse staffing. This nursing home provides 0.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics 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 place the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a resident even once per day.

In our final category, this nursing home also was given an excellent long-term care rating, with an A. This completed an elite profile. If you are seeking anything other than rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each facility's long-term care grades. Once we looked at the volume of care provided by nurses and other staff, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination record. It does not look like this nursing home provided information on its vaccination levels. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it was able to keep its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.