The Waters of Fort Smith

While we gave this place a weak overall score, we gave it a fairly respectable score in the category of inspections, where we gave it a B-. This was quite a bit better than its other category grades. We take several aspects of a facility's inspection report into consideration in determining these inspection scores. One of those factors is health deficiencies. It should be noted that the severity of these deficiencies is usually more important than the quantity of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. Fortunately, although this place had a few minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are those labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies are not the end of the world.

One of this facility's better category scores came in the area of long-term care. This ended up being its second most respectable category. In that area, we awarded this nursing home a grade of B-. In a long-term care environment, the facility's primary goal is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. We were unable to find a few metrics in determining this place's long-term care score, so this might not be quite as accurate as our other category grades.

This nursing home actually received a decent grade in the area of nursing as well. We awarded it a grade of C for that category, which is not a bad score. When calculating our nursing scores, we assess both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the skill levels of those nurses. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per patient each day, which is not an impressive total. Finally, although this facility got dinged a bit for nursing hours, it excelled in some of our quality metrics. With fewer than five percent of its patients experiencing pressure ulcers, it fared remarkably well in this statistic.

Turning to our final category, this nursing home was given a respectable short-term care score of C. In computing our short-term care scores, we analyze the facility's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other licensed professionals. This area is often a useful measure of the nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. Unfortunately, we found that this nursing home provided fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Lastly, we considered the number of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.