Elmhurst Extended Care Center

While we gave this nursing home a poor overall grade, we actually gave it a fairly respectable grade in the area of nursing, where it received a B-. This was better than its other category grades. Nursing ratings are tied to nurse staffing levels. This nursing home provides 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a much lower figure than we are used to seeing. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics. While this facility got docked a bit for nursing hours, it actually excelled in some of these quality measures. With fewer than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it fared well in this subcategory. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as having a system of moving patients more frequently.

This facility was given its next best category grade in the area of short-term care. We gave this facility a grade of B- in this area, which is an acceptable grade. In determining these short-term care grades, we analyze the facility's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The objective is to create a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of nursing homes. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. In fact, it supplied fewer physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than most other nursing homes. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 6.4 percent of this facility's patients returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.

This nursing home's next most favorable category is its long-term care grade, where it was given a B-. In the area of long-term care, we assess the quantity of care provided by a facility, rather than more sophisticated services. After considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we next considered the nursing home's vaccination statistics. We were somewhat surprised to discover that this facility vaccinated just 89.55224 percent of its residents against pneumonia. Nevertheless, this facility keeps its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.

Turning our last area of inspections, this facility received an F here. When a nursing home has this bad of an inspection score, you should expect some severe deficiencies on its inspection report. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to resident safety. This facility was assessed 6 deficiencies on its inspection report. The only positive thing we found is that none of the deficiencies were in the categories that indicate that they caused a risk to resident health or safety. Finally, this facility was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We would not recommend this facility under any circumstance.