Accura Healthcare of Ames
3440 Grand Avenue, Ames IA 50010 · (515) 232-3426 · 61.72% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Accura Healthcare of Ames is one of a mere three available facilities in Ames, Iowa. With an overall rating of A-, this nursing home is among the higher-graded facilities we assessed. In fact, we ranked this nursing home in the top third of all nursing homes in the United States. This nursing home's strong profile was highlighted by its inspection reports, which you can find in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 110 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the reasons this ended up being a great nursing home is that it earned an A+ inspection grade. This is as good as it gets in this area. Perhaps the most important factor we look at in determining our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a nursing home's inspection reports. Facilities with better scores in this area typically avoided the more severe deficiencies involving health risks or even death. Fortunately, although this facility had a few minor dings on its report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are ones labeled as categories G, H, I, J, K and L. This means that the government inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
Adding to its strong assessment, this facility also was given a superb long-term care grade, with a score of A. Long-term care grades in this range generally require both 24/7 care from nurses and aids, as well as quality routine healthcare services. After considering the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the facility's vaccination records. This nursing home vaccinated 92.15686 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is somewhat below what we were hoping for but still a respectable figure. The last statistic we looked at was its hospitalization rate. Here we found that this nursing home had 3.24 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. Although this wasn't as strong as most of its other scores in this category, this number may be skewed for some facilities based on some of the medical complexity of patients.
Nurse Quality
In addition, this facility also received favorable nursing grades this year. In fact, we awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of B. When calculating a nursing home's nursing rating, we consider the number of hours nurses commit to patients as well as the level of skill of those nurses. This nursing home provides 3.1 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We view these areas as predictive measures of the caliber of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.
Short-term Care Quality
The next area we graded is short-term care, in which this facility was awarded a grade of C. This proved to be this facility's weakest area. This is nevertheless not a bad grade. Our short-term care ratings are based on the facility's quantity of skilled nursing services. This means a vast range of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, in addition to other variations of therapy. One of this nursing home's strengths is registered nurse hours. We found that it offers more care from registered nurses to its residents than most facilities. The last measure we assessed in this area is the percentage of residents who were able to return home from the facility. We found that just 32.3 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home. Unfortunately, this was below the national average.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Accura Healthcare of Ames Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percent of patients who sustained a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are damage to the skin caused by remaining in one position for too long.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percentage of residents who suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in serious injury are considered to be a barometer of the quality of nursing care . Falls leading to injury are routinely caused by lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percent of patients who suffered from a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are often caused by facilities with lower levels of hygiene. Better hygiene protocols reduces the number of UTI's sustained by residents in a nursing home. Keep in mind that this statistic is affected by by the fact that facilities have varying reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This metric measures the percentage of long-term patients receiving antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs play an important role in caring for many residents, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In some cases, excessive reliance on these medications may mean a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This gauges the percentage of long-term care residents which are administered antianxiety drugs. These medications are commonly prescribed to residents suffering from depression and anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percent of patients who are exhibiting signs of depression. High levels of depression could imply worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This indicates the percent of residents that were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percentage of residents that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Higher levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's may indicate the decline of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
Measures the percent of long-term care patients that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This indicates the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This metric is a measure of the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Some experts believe that this is a reasonable measure of a nursing home's rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better