Elms Health Care Center

This nursing home earned a strong overall grade as described above, but we especially wanted to point out its excellent nursing rating. We awarded them an A in this category. Our nursing rating is based on a variety of datapoints. The most important variable is the amount of time nurses spend with patients. This nursing home averages 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a nursing home has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

Among the reasons we graded this facility so well is that it received a strong short-term care score. Indeed, short-term care ended up being its second best category grade. In that category, we awarded this nursing home a grade of A-. Our short-term care scores are based on the nursing home's quantity of skilled nursing services. This includes a broad spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and occupational therapists, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home has registered nurses on staff. Not all nursing homes employs these types of nurses. However, based on the data this nursing home provided, they do not appear to employ physical therapists. The last statistic we considered in this category is the percentage of patients who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home.

Another strong feature for this nursing home is that it excelled in the area of inspections, with a grade of B in that category. It performed better than most nursing homes in this category. Our inspection scores are based on many items found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Facilities that receive favorable grades in this area have very 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 received 6 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered to be major deficiencies. This tells you that the inspectors didn't consider any of the deficiencies an immediate threat to patient health or safety. Keep in mind that deficiency-free inspections are rare in this industry.

The next area we looked at was long-term care. We awarded this nursing home a grade of D in long-term care, leaving this as its weakest category. When facilities receive a grade in this range in this category it typically means the nursing home did not perform well in our measures relating to patient care. Once we assessed the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. Frankly, we were a bit concerned this facility vaccinated 89.53488 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which happens to be quite a bit below what we were hoping for. To our surprise, this facility was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With only 0 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. This was its best score in this category.