Sequoyah East Nursing Center

While we graded this nursing home incredibly poorly overall, it received a better long-term care rating this year. We gave it a B- in that area. In determining our long-term care grades, we assess the assistance with daily living offered to a facility's patients. In addition to looking at the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we analyzed the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its patients, which is higher than the majority of nursing homes. Lastly, this facility was also able to limit hospitalizations. Indeed, it had only 0.04 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

This nursing home didn't receive glowing inspections in recent years. We gave it a D for our inspections rating and that actually proved to be its second highest score. Our inspection scores weigh many items on the facility's inspection reports. When you see severe deficiencies on the inspection reports, this is typically the worst sign. Severe deficiencies indicate a threat to resident safety. This particular nursing home had 3 deficiencies by CMS. The only positive thing we found is that none of its deficiencies were in the categories that suggest they caused a threat to patient health or safety. Finally, we want to draw your attention to the fact that this place was assessed large government fines in recent years amounting to more than $100,000. This usually suggests that a nursing home'sbad performance has been an issue for multiple years.

Sadly, this facility only earned a D for its short-term care score, which is not a score to write home about. In computing our short-term care grades, we assess a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other licensed professionals. This grade is generally a useful assessment of a facility's rehabilitation services. Considering its score in this area, we weren't surprised to discover that this facility was well below average in terms of the quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours offered to its patients based on the data we assessed. The last measure we considered in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that just 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home, which is well below average. The combination of these subpar metrics doomed this facility's short-term care grade.

The final area we rated was nursing. Sadly, it received an abysmal F in this category, which is a very poor grade. Our nursing grade is primarily tied to the facility's nurse staffing. This facility provided just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low total compared to most nursing homes. On top of rating below average in nursing hours per resident, this facility also had poor marks in the quality-based metrics we looked at in calculating our nursing grades. We looked at the percentage of patients experiencing pressure ulcers and major falls. This place was at approximately 150 percent of the national average in both of these statistics. This is likely a bad sign when you consider that many falls and bed sores are preventable with better nursing care. These statistics pulled down this facility's nursing rating significantly.