Bethany Lutheran Home
Seven Elliott Street, Council Bluffs IA 51503 · (712) 328-9500 · 92.23% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
With an address in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Bethany Lutheran Home is one of four facilities in the city. This is a strong facility with a grade of B+ overall. We were pleased to find out that many of the other nursing homes in Council Bluffs received similar scores. You can certainly do much worse than this facility. This place's strong report card was highlighted by its inspection score, which is addressed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 121 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Other
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the reasons this place is a strong nursing home is that it earned a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections turned out to be its best category. In that category, we awarded it a grade of A. Inspection grades weigh a host of factors included in a nursing home's inspection reports. One key criteria we look at is the quantity and severity of deficiencies. Facilities with better scores in this category tend to have very few of these severe deficiencies. This particular nursing home received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report. Overall, this is still a good inspection report, but we'd always recommend looking into any deficiencies you find troubling.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we rated this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing rating. In fact, nursing proved to be its second best category grade. In that area, we awarded this nursing home an B+. In computing a facility's nursing score, we assess the quantity of hours nurses are caring for patients as well as the skill levels of those nurses. This facility provided 4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is an impressive figure which typically leads to higher quality care. Lastly, this place also excelled in several quality-based metrics we looked at. With less than five percent of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any nursing home the state in this category.
Short-term Care Quality
Turning to the third area, this nursing home also earned a grade of B for its short-term care rating. This is an above average score in this category. In computing our short-term care ratings, we assess a facility's levels of highly skilled nursing, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists speech therapists and other types of therapists. This score is often a fair assessment of a facility's rehabilitation services. Fortunately, this nursing home offers both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities offer both. Lastly, we considered the percentage of residents who were able to return home from this facility. We found that it outperformed the majority of nursing homes in this area with 51.1 percent of its patients returning home. This is a better rate than most facilities.
Long-term Care Quality
The final area we scored is long-term care, where this facility was awarded a B. This facility did not prove to have any weaknesses. Nursing homes that receive this kind of grade in this category typically provide consistent around the clock care to make sure residents are well cared for. Once we concluded our assessment of the amount of care provided by nurses, we then looked at the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 97.47475 percent of its residents against pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia is often a dangerous illness for nursing home patients so we prefer when a nursing home doesn't take any chances. This nursing home also keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 1.58 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Bethany Lutheran Home Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is a measure of the percent of long-term residents which developed pressure ulcers . We factor in this statistic in computing both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percent of patients that sustained a fall which resulted in severe injury.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of patients that suffered from a urinary tract infection. UTI's are routinely caused by lower quality nursing care. Closer supervision can limit the number of UTI's sustained by residents in a nursing home. Note that this datapoint 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 indicates the percentage of patients who were given antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic drugs may be vital to many patients, it is important to ensure these medications are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of residents given antianxiety medications. These medications are commonly used to treat residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percentage of patients demonstrating depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of patients 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 datapoint measures the percent of long-term care patients who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and eating. Many argue that this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This is the percent of patients who retained mobility levels over time. Optimizing mobility is often a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of care. There is usually a correlation between avoiding hospitalizations and the quality of nursing home care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is a measure of the percent of short-term patients who experienced functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better