Eastern Star Masonic Home
715 West Third Street, Boone IA 50036 · (515) 432-5274 · 91.57% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Eastern Star Masonic Home is one of only two available facilities in Boone, Iowa. It looks like this is a fine facility. We gave this it an overall grade of B+, which is very favorable grade. Based on our ratings, this nursing home has quite a bit going for it. The best part of this facility's impressive profile was its nursing rating. Nursing grades are discussed in the next paragraph
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 76 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Nurse Quality
To go along with its strong overall grade, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A+ for its nursing grade. Nursing grades are based in large part on levels of nurse staffing. This nursing home provides an incredible 5.1 hours of nursing care per resident each day. This is much better than what is offered by most facilities. Lastly, this place was also above average in each of the major quality-based metrics we assessed in this category. It performed well in terms of avoiding pressure ulcers and major falls.
Facility Inspections
This nursing home also performed well in the area of inspections. It earned a nearly flawless inspection report this year. It received one of our best grades in that area with an A-. Few nursing homes with an overall grade in this range performed this well in multiple categories. Perhaps the most significant factor we look at in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. Deficiencies can be found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with better scores in this area most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving patient abuse or death. This nursing home was hit with 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that CMS did not consider any of the deficiencies to create an immediate threat to resident health or safety. Remember that deficiency-free inspection reports are uncommon in this industry.
Long-term Care Quality
In addition, this facility also was given favorable long-term care scores this year. In fact, we awarded them one of our higher scores in that area, with a grade of B. Facilities that receive this type of grade in this category typically provide consistent 24/7 care to ensure residents are well cared for. This facility's vaccination records were not as strong as its nursing hours data. It administered the pneumonia vaccine to just 90.67164 percent of its patients. We would like to see some improvement herein this statistic in the future. Although its vaccination rate was a bit lower than we like to see, we were pleased to find facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.
Short-term Care Quality
The final area we looked at is short-term care, where this nursing home was given a B-. While this wound up being its poorest category rating, this is still not the end of the world. In calculating these short-term care grades, we assess the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of skilled professionals. The objective is to create a scale for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various facilities. Fortunately, this nursing home offers both physical therapists and registered nurses. Not all facilities offer both. Finally, we considered the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 31.8 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most nursing homes, closer to half of their residents are able to return home so this figure is below average.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Eastern Star Masonic Home Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percentage of residents who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are damage to the skin resulting from staying in one position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term stay patients who have suffered a fall leading to severe injury. Falls can arise for a variety of reasons, but high rates of falls resulting in injuries may be an indicator of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This figure measures the percentage of long-term residents who suffered from urinary tract infections. UTI's could be an indication of a facility with worst hygiene practices. Nevertheless, this datapoint can be skewed for some facilities due to different reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This figure gauges the percentage of long-term patients taking antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications play an important role in caring for many residents, it is important to make sure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a facility is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients who were given antianxiety medications. These drugs are generally used to treat patients experiencing anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percentage of patients who are exhibiting depressive symptoms.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care residents that were vaccinated against pneumonia and flu.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percent of patients that required more assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with activities of daily living could be a sign of the erosion of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric measures the percent of long-term care residents who were able to retain mobility.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks 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 tells you the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care. There is a correlation between reduced hospitalizations and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures the number of emergency room visits per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
Measures the percentage of short-term residents that experienced functional improvements.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better