Buchanan County Health Center
1600 First Street East, Independence IA 50644 · (319) 334-6071 · 95.12% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Buchanan County Health Center is a small hospital-based facility located in Independence, Iowa. With an overall grade of A, this nursing home is among the most impressive nursing homes we assessed. We could not find many bad things to say about this place. Its ratings are just impeccable. Keep reading to find this nursing home's category grades, which are also strong. It's hard to poke holes in this nursing home's profile.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 39 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Partnership
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
In addition to being a strong facility overall, it also earned A+ health inspections recently. Its inspections are virtually perfect. These inspection scores take several factors into consideration, including deficiencies, substantiated complaints and federal fines. You can find more information about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Although this place had a few deficiencies on its inspection report, none were serious based on CMS' deficiency scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Long-term Care Quality
Adding to its strong profile, this nursing home also performed well in our long-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A for the category. Nursing homes that do well in long-term care typically are well-staffed and offer extensive hands on care to patients. In addition to looking at the impressive level of care provided by nurses and other staff at this nursing home, we also were pleased by the facility's vaccination data. For example, this facility administered the pneumonia vaccine to 99.27007 percent of its residents, which is an impressive figure. Finally, this place was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had only 0.87 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.
Nurse Quality
We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A- in our nursing category. In determining our nursing scores, we assess both nursing hours and the skill levels of the nurses. With 4.2 hours of nursing care per patient daily, this facility surpassed the vast majority of facilities. Finally, this place also performed well in several of the quality measures we assessed. For example, in terms of the percentage of its residents suffering from pressure ulcers, this place performed better than the national average. This is typically an indicator that a place has reliable quality controls. Pressure ulcers can frequently be avoided with better nursing care and having a policy of regularly turning residents to avoid bed sores.
Short-term Care Quality
The last area we scored was short-term care, where this nursing home was awarded a B+. This rounded out a very impressive report card. Only a select few facilities received a B+ or higher in every single category. In the area of short-term care, we attempt to qualify indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation services. We look at the facility's skilled nursing services, including the ones performed by registered nurses and various therapists. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we considered the percentage of patients who were able to return to the community from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients returned home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Buchanan County Health Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage resulting from remaining in one position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This is the percentage of residents who sustained a major fall. Falls leading to major injuries are considered to be a barometer of nursing care . Major falls are often caused by lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term stay patients who suffered from a UTI. While more of these infections may reflect poorly on a nursing home's nursing care, it can be difficult to compare different nursing homes due to reporting standards.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients receiving antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to make sure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean a nursing home is using these drugs to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This is the percentage of patients prescribed antianxiety medications. Antianxiety drugs are prescribed to residents suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients showing depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients who received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for nursing home patients, 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 percent of long-term patients who required additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and using the bathroom.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric tracks the percentage of long-term stay residents that retained mobility levels. Some believe that the ability to move around is vital to patients physical and mental well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
Measures the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This tells you the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care. There is generally a correlation between reduced hospitalizations and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better