Elkader Care Center

On top of faring well overall, this nursing home also earned a nearly flawless inspection report. Consequently, it received one of our best scores in that category with an A+. Inspection grades are based on several pieces of information located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that excel in this category tend to have few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. This nursing home was hit with 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the inspectors didn't deem any of the deficiencies to create an imminent risk to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our nursing category. Our nursing category assesses quite a few subcategories, many of which are based on nursing hours. This particular nursing home provided 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed some nursing quality measures in determining our nursing grades. This place performed very well in the area of minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. We consider these areas to be good indicators of the quality of nursing care.

Turning the page to our third category, this facility received a top-shelf long-term care grade. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- in that category. Facilities that receive this kind of grade in long-term care tend to provide consistent around the clock care to ensure patients are well cared for. On top of considering the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we analyzed the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents, which is what we like to see. Pneumonia sadly is often a deadly condition for nursing home residents so we like it when a facility does not roll the dice on this issue. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. It had only 0.01 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low number.

In our last category, this nursing home also was given a very strong short-term care grade, with a grade of B+. This finished off a very impressive report card. In the category of short-term care, we seek to evaluate indicators of a nursing home's rehabilitation. We look at the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as the ones performed by registered nurses and physical, occupational and other therapists. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, based on the information this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.