Pauls Valley Care Center

While we did not rate this nursing home favorably overall, we want to point out its relatively favorable nursing grade this year. We gave it a B in this area, which was much better than its overall rating. Our nursing rating analyzes several subcategories, however, the most important consideration is the level of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this facility excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the state in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as by having a policy of turning a patient at least once a day.

This facility was given its next most favorable category grade in the category of short-term care. We awarded this nursing home a B- in this area, which is an acceptable grade. Our short-term care ratings are important for prospective residents needing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation typically utilizes additional highly-skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a vast spectrum of nursing services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. We were surprised to find that this nursing home was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. In fact, it offered fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this also correlates to a lower quality of care. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who returned home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was actually quite a bit below the national average.

Turning to the category of long-term care, this facility received a grade of just D in this area. Facilities that do not fare well in this category typically aren't as well-staffed and are lagging in a few of the areas of routine medical care we looked at. After considering the amount of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination records. We were a bit alarmed this facility vaccinated a relatively low 75.675674 percent of its residents for pneumonia. Surprisingly, this facility was actually decent at keeping its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.03 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. This was its best score in this category.

Turning the final category of inspections, this facility fared very poorly. Sadly, it received an F in our inspection category. We would advise paying special attention to any deficiencies on a nursing home's inspection reports when it receives this bad of an inspection grade. We would scrutinize the level of severity of those deficiencies. This particular nursing home had a category J or K deficiency, which rank among the worst deficiencies. Finally, this facility also received 18 substantiated complaints in recent years. This is yet another bad sign.