Health Center at Live Oak, The Oaks of Louisiana’s skilled nursing residence, has received an overall 5-star rating from CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). It is the highest rating awarded, says Mary Ann Wade, Health Center administrator.

The rating system was designed to help consumers, their families and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily. Overall ratings are the results of individual ratings in the areas of:

• Health inspections, which includes information from the past 3 years of onsite surveys and determines the extent to which a nursing home has met Medicare’s and Medicaid’s minimum quality requirements;
• Staffing, which includes information about the number of hours of care provided on average to each resident each day by nursing staff;
• Quality measures - how well nursing homes are caring for their residents’ physical and clinical needs.

Surveys (inspections) are conducted over several days to make sure a residence is “complying with mandatory state and federal regulations,” Wade says.

Surveyors follow a checklist of areas to examine and inspections are conducted every year.

“We are proud of this rating,” Wade says. “We follow the regulations and do everything we can in our power to take the best care of people who have been entrusted to us. There are 175 staff members and 144 residents.                       

Health Center at Live Oak is a member of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association and is operated by Willis-Knighton Health System, a not-for-profit health system. For more information, call (318) 212-OAKS (6257) or visit oaksofla.com.