Big Elm Retirement and Nursing Centers
1285 West a Street, Kannapolis NC 28081 · (704) 932-0000 · 88% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Big Elm Retirement and Nursing Centers is a facility located in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a city with a population of 49,010 people. With an overall rating of B+, this is a very good nursing home. This facility truly has plenty of good features. The best aspect of this facility's strong report card was its inspection score. Inspection grades are discussed in the next paragraph
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 50 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Church related
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
On top of being an elite facility overall, this nursing home performed well in our inspections category, where it received an A+. Very few facilities performed this well in this category. Perhaps the most important factor we look at in calculating our inspection grades is deficiencies. Deficiencies are found on a facility's inspection reports. Nursing homes with higher scores in this area most likely dodged the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. Although this place had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none of them were serious based on CMS' scale. A couple minor dings aren't necessarily the end of the world.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing score. In that area, we awarded this nursing home an B+. In calculating our nursing scores, we weigh both the number of hours nurses spend with residents and the training levels of the nurses. With 4.1 hours of nursing care per patient each day, this place surpassed the vast majority of facilities. Lastly, this place was also above average in each of the major quality measures we looked at in this category. It performed well when it comes to avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.
Short-term Care Quality
The third category we looked at is short-term care. This facility was awarded an above average short-term care grade, with a grade of B in the category. Short-term care ratings are based on the facility's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a broad spectrum of services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, not to mention other types of therapy. This nursing home boosted its score in this category by offering more physical therapy hours to its residents than the average facility. The final datapoint we looked at in this area is the number of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We discovered that 43.7 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.
Long-term Care Quality
Turning to our final category, this nursing home was given a decent long-term care grade. While this is not as impressive as several of its other grades, this is still not a major area of concern. For long-term care residents, the primary goal is to maintain patients' quality of life and keep them safe. After looking at the above average volume of nursing hours provided by this facility, we turned to the facility's vaccination statistics. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its residents for pneumonia, which appears to be higher than the average nursing home. This combination proved to be effective as this facility keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had just 1.07 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a significantly lower hospitalization rate than the majority of nursing homes.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Big Elm Retirement and Nursing Centers Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, which are also known as bed sores, are routinely the result of patients not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can limit the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint is an indication of the percentage of long-term stay residents which have sustained falls which resulted in severe injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating nursing ratings.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This tells you the percentage of residents that have had a urinary tract infection. These infections are associated with poor hygiene.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of residents who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic drugs are prescribed to patients for a variety of conditions, including dementia. Sadly, in some situations, increased usage of these drugs may indicate 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 percent of patients who were prescribed antianxiety drugs. Antianxiety drugs are prescribed to residents experiencing anxiety or depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is a measure of the percent of long-term residents who are demonstrating depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percent of long-term stay residents who have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be fatal for seniors, making these types of vaccines critical to patient care.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as dressing and taking a bath. Many would argue this is a measure of a patient's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percent of long-term residents that remained mobile levels.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of care. There is usually a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and the overall quality of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This datapoint measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term care. Staying out of the emergency room is one way to measure the well-being of patients during rehabilitation.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
Measures the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. Many would argue that this is a reliable measure of a facility's rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better