Ouachita Nursing and Rehab Center

One of the reasons this place is a strong facility is that it earned a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections turned out to be its best category grade. In this category, we awarded this facility an A-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating our inspection grades. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of the deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some can be relatively insignificant. Fortunately, although this facility had some minor dings on its inspection 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 deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. The fact that none of the deficiencies were severe made us feel better about this inspection report.

Another one of this nursing home's above average category grades came in the area of short-term care. We awarded them one of our better scores in that category, with a grade of B+. In computing our short-term care ratings, we size up a nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other licensed professionals. This area is typically a meaningful assessment of a facility's ability to rehabilitate patients. It does not look like this nursing home provided data regarding its registered nurse or physical therapy staffing. The final metric we assessed in this area is the number of patients that ultimately returned home from the facility. We found that 5.7 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

This facility received a very good nursing grade this year as well. It received one of our better scores in that category with a grade of B. When determining a facility's nursing grade, we consider the amount of time nurses commit to patients as well as the skill levels of the nurses. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can often be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Switching gears to the last area, we awarded this nursing home a grade of D in our long-term care category. This is the facility's weakest category score. Unfortunately, this category hurt the facility's overall grade a bit. For residents looking for a permanent place to live rather than skilled nursing, long-term care grades are very important. In addition to looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 99.21568 percent of its patients, which is more than the vast majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this place also fared well at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had just 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days. Sadly, a few of its other scores in this category weren't as favorable as these.