Elm Heights Care Center is located in Shenandoah, Iowa, a city with a population of 6,025 people. Featuring an overall rating of A, this nursing home is one of the best facilities we found. We were so impressed with this facility that we ranked it in the top ten percentile of all nursing homes nationally. If you look further down this page, you can see this place's category grades, which look to be just as strong as its overall grade.
Elm Heights Care Center
- Nursing Home
Updated Sep 1, 2022 by Nick Lata
Quick Details
- Accepts Medicare 1
- Accepts Medicaid 1
- No CCRC
- Has Resident Council
- No Family Council
- For profit - Corporation
- Offers Hospice
- Offers Respite Care
- Offers Inpatient Rehab
- Offers Outpatient Rehab
Specialized Services
- Home Making
- Speech Therapy
- Stroke Recovery
- IV Antibiotic Therapy
- Wound Care
- Occupational Therapy
- Cardiac Therapy
- Diabetes Management
- Physical Therapy
- Respiratory Therapy
- Nutritional Counseling
- Recreational Therapy
- Pain Management
- Orthopedic Rehabilitation
Awards
Registered Staff Hours
Long-term Care Quality
On top of being a first rate nursing home overall, this nursing home also excelled in long-term care, where it received an A+. Few facilities fared better in this category. When facilities receive a grade in this range in long-term care it typically means it has plenty of staff and is a quality place to reside on a permanent basis. After looking at the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination data. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients against pneumonia. Vaccines are critical to keeping patients out of the hospital. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. It had less than one hospitalization per 1,000 long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.
Facility Inspections
This facility also received a virtually flawless government inspection. As a result, it received one of our highest grades in that area with an A+. This is one of the few facilities to receive multiple A+'s. Inspection grades are tied to items found on the a nursing home's recent inspections. Nursing homes that score well in this area have very few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these facilities should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with endangerment of patients. While this place had some minor dings on its government inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This means that the inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.
Does this page answer your questions about Elm Heights Care Center?
Nurse Quality
We also wanted to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A- in our nursing category. We looked at the levels of nurses working for the nursing home, in addition to the quantity of time the nurses were with patients, in calculating our score in this category. This particular nursing home provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also assessed several nursing quality-based metrics and this nursing home excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the country in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can often be avoided by offering better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving patients at least once a day.
Short-term Care Quality
In the final category, we awarded this nursing home an A+ for our short-term care rating. This finished off a very strong report card. Our short-term care grades are important for individuals in need of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes more skilled nursing. This includes a wide scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this facility has registered nurses on staff. Not all facilities employs these skilled professionals. However, according to the information this nursing home provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents that ultimately returned home from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Elm Heights Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Elm Heights Care Center, 6.11% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This is the percent of patients that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a barometer of nursing care at a nursing home. Pressure ulcers, which are also known as bed sores, are often caused by patients not being moved frequently enough.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Elm Heights Care Center, 3.69% of Patients had Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents who have had a major fall. Falls leading to serious injury are often linked to lower levels of patient supervision. Better nursing protocols can reduce the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Elm Heights Care Center, 3.09% of Patients had UTIs
This is the percentage of patients who sustained a urinary tract infection. These infections are linked to poor hygiene.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Elm Heights Care Center, 16.77% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This statistic indicates the percentage of long-term residents who were given antipsychotic drugs. Excessive reliance on these medications may indicate that a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents in scenarios where such drugs aren't medically required. However, some nursing homes may need to rely on these medications due to an increased number of patients with Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Elm Heights Care Center, 18.7% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This datapoint gauges the percent of long-term patients receiving antianxiety drugs.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Elm Heights Care Center, 4.48% of Patients
Measures the percent of long-term residents showing symptoms of depression.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Elm Heights Care Center, 94.58% of Patients
This tells you the percentage of residents who have received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be demanded by residents.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Elm Heights Care Center, 16.82% Percentage of Patients
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term care residents that needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and continence. Many in the industry would argue that this is a measure of a patient's well-being.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Elm Heights Care Center, 19.24% Percentage of Residents
This is the percent of residents that retained mobility levels over time. Optimizing mobility can be a good sign for residents' well-being.
Hospitalizations
In Elm Heights Care Center, 1.24 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of care. There is typically a correlation between staying out of the hospital and the quality of nursing home care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Elm Heights Care Center, 19.24 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This indicates the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Nearby Hospitals
- Shenandoah Medical CenterCritical Access Hospitals 0.26 miles away300 Pershing Avenue Shenandoah Iowa 51601Voluntary non-profit - Private(712) 246-1230
- George C Grape Community HospitalCritical Access Hospitals 17.2 miles away2959 Us Highway 275 Hamburg Iowa 51640Proprietary(712) 382-1515
- Clarinda Regional Health CenterCritical Access Hospitals 17.54 miles away220 Essie Davison Drive Clarinda Iowa 51632Voluntary non-profit - Other(712) 542-2176
Nearby Dialysis
- Shenandoah Dialysis0.29 miles away300 Pershing Avenue Shenandoah Iowa 51601Dialysis Stations: 12 (712) 246-5220