Elm Heights Care Center
1203 South Elm Street, Shenandoah IA 51601 · (712) 246-4627 · 81.79% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Elm Heights Care Center is a facility located in Shenandoah, Iowa. This city has 6,025 people. This nursing home was given an A- overall, which is one of our more impressive ratings. In fact, we ranked this facility in the top third of all facilities in the country. The best part of this facility's strong report card was its inspection grade. Inspection grades are discussed in the next paragraph
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 50 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
In addition to being a great overall grade, this facility also received A+ health inspections in recent years. Its inspections were virtually flawless. Perhaps the most critical factor we consider in computing our inspection scores is deficiencies. These deficiencies are found on a facility's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes with better scores in this area most likely avoided the more severe deficiencies involving things like patient abuse. Although this place had some deficiencies on its inspection report, none were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. A couple relatively minor dings aren't something to panic about.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we graded this facility so highly is that it received a very impressive nursing grade. In that category, we awarded this facility an A+. There are many factors within this area. Most of the criteria are tied to nurse staffing. This facility provided 3.8 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also looked at a few quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This facility excelled in these areas, with excellent scores for minimizing its residents' major falls and pressure ulcers. These areas are generally reliable indicators of the quality of nursing care a facility provides.
Short-term Care Quality
This facility also received a favorable short-term care grade. Indeed, we awarded it an above average score of B in this category. With our short-term care category, we seek to forge a fair gauge for rehabilitation services. In doing so, we assess a facility's levels of skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. One reason for this facility's strong score in this category is that it provides more care with registered nurses to its residents than the average nursing home. Lastly, we looked at the number of patients that were able to return home from this facility. We found that 35.3 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we assessed was this nursing home's weakest area. However, even in its worst category we still awarded it a decent grade of B- for our long-term care category. In computing our long-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's ability to maintain its permanent residents' health and quality of life. One of the factors we considered after nursing hours was vaccines. Fortunately, this nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. This facility was able to keep its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had only 1.21 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a substantially better hospitalization rate than the average nursing home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Elm Heights Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term stay residents that have new or worsened pressure ulcers. Many experts believe that pressure ulcers are a solid indicator of a facility's nursing care quality.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This statistic indicates the percent of long-term care residents who experienced falls resulting in serious injury. Falls can happen for a variety of reasons, but high rates of major falls may be a sign of lower quality nursing care.
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 associated with facilities with lower levels of hygiene. Additional nurse staffing can minimize the percentage of residents in a nursing home who suffer from UTI's. Note that this datapoint is affected by by the fact that nursing homes have incongruent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This is the percentage of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic drugs are given to patients for a variety of conditions, including cognitive disorders. Tragically, in limited situations, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This tells you the percent of residents prescribed antianxiety medications. These medications are typically used to treat residents experiencing depression or anxiety.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This indicates the percentage of residents who are demonstrating symptoms of depression. High levels of depression may be an indicator worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of patients that have received the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This indicates the percent of residents who needed additional 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 deterioration of a resident's health.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percentage of patients that retained mobility levels over time. Optimizing mobility can be a great sign for residents' health.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This tells you the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term care. Avoiding the hospital during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the health of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This datapoint measures the percent of short-term stay residents who experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Many in the industry argue that this is a reliable measure of rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better