Elms Health Care Center is a nursing home located in Ponca, Nebraska. This city has a total of 1,552 people. Featuring an overall grade of F, we consider this to be a bottom of the barrel nursing home. In our view, you'd be better off to steer clear of this nursing home. We wouldn't blame you if you are ready to stop reading and find another nursing home. However, if you want to learn more about this nursing home's category grades, nursing grades are discussed in the next section.
Elms Health Care Center
- Nursing Home
Updated Jun 1, 2022 by Nick Lata
Note: Elms Health Care Center has been flagged for abuse in the past 12 months. We have capped this facility's overall grade accordingly.
Quick Details
Registered Staff Hours
Nurse Quality
While we graded this facility incredibly poorly overall, it received a fairly respectable nursing grade this year. We gave it a grade of B- in that category. The nursing rating analyzes a handful of components, however, the main consideration is the number of nurse hours per patient per week. This nursing home averages just 0.3 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a very low figure. Lastly, nursing grades also consider quality-based metrics, such as preventing major falls. Despite not having the most impressive total nursing hours, this facility performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is generally an indicator that a place has sufficient quality controls in place. Many falls could be avoided if a facility supplies enough nurses aids to assist its patients.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home also didn't perform poorly in the category of short-term care. In fact, we awarded it a B- for that category, which turned out to be another one of its higher grades. Our short-term care grades are probably more meaningful for folks in need of a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates more skilled nursing. This means not only nursing services, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other variations of therapy. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours provided to its patients based on the metrics we assessed. The real question is whether this adversely affected quality of care. Finally, we assessed the number of patients who were able to return to the community from this nursing home. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents returned home. At most facilities, closer to half of their patients are able to return home so this figure is below average.
Does this page answer your questions about Elms Health Care Center?
Long-term Care Quality
Sadly, this nursing home's third best category was long-term care. However, with a D in this category, it still fared somewhat poorly. Facilities that don't fare well in long-term care often do not provide as much nursing care and also may be lagging in a few of the areas of routine medical care we assessed. On top of looking at the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we looked at the number of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. Candidly, we were a bit bothered by the fact that this nursing home gave the vaccine to only 42.857143 percent of its patients. Surprisingly, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this nursing home has fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. This was its best score in this category.
Facility Inspections
Turning our final category of inspections, this facility received a grade that's as bad as it gets. You should pay close attention to any deficiencies on a facility's inspection reports when it receives this poor of an inspection grade. We suggest you scrutinize the level of severity of those deficiencies. This facility was hit with 6 deficiencies by CMS. The only positive thing we found is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that suggest that they posed a risk to resident safety or health. Lastly, this facility was flagged by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. We prefer to avoid facilities with this designation. Please do your best to find an alternative nursing home.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Elms Health Care Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Elms Health Care Center, 5.63% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term residents which suffered from pressure ulcers or bed sores. We factor in this statistic in computing our nursing grades.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Elms Health Care Center, 4.88% of Patients had Serious Falls
This is the percentage of residents who sustained a major fall. Falls leading to major injury are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a measure of nursing care . Falls resulting in injury are often caused by lower levels of patient supervision.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Elms Health Care Center, 3.69% of Patients had UTIs
This is the percentage of patients that sustained a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered to be a measure of nursing care . UTI's are routinely associated with a facility with lower levels of hygiene. Nevertheless, this statistic could be misleading for some facilities due to varying reporting standards for these infections.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Elms Health Care Center, 18.23% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This figure is an indication of the percentage of long-term care patients that were administered antipsychotic drugs. Excessive reliance on these medications may mean that a facility is using these medications to subdue residents in situations where such medications are not medically indicated. Nevertheless, some nursing homes need to rely more on these drugs due to having more residents suffering from Alzheimer's or other dementias.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Elms Health Care Center, 19.85% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric indicates the percentage of long-term care residents which were given antianxiety medication. These drugs are prescribed to patients experiencing anxiety and depression.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Elms Health Care Center, 4.27% of Patients
This is the percent of residents who are exhibiting depressive symptoms. Higher rates of depression may imply a lower level of care.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Elms Health Care Center, 93.22% of Patients
This indicates the percent of patients who were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be the norm at this point.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Elms Health Care Center, 15.08% Percentage of Patients
This metric measures the percentage of long-term care patients who needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as getting dressed and using the bathroom.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Elms Health Care Center, 21.04% Percentage of Residents
This is the percent of residents that retained mobility levels over time. Preserving mobility is often a great sign for residents' well-being.
Hospitalizations
In Elms Health Care Center, 1.25 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Elms Health Care Center, 21.04 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This is the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term care. There is generally a correlation between keeping patients out of the hospital and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Nearby Hospitals
- St Lukes Regional Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 15.4 miles away2720 Stone Park Boulevard Sioux City Iowa 51104Voluntary non-profit - Private(712) 279-3500
- Mercy Medical Center-Sioux CityAcute Care Hospitals 16.1 miles away801 5th St Sioux City Iowa 51101Voluntary non-profit - Private(712) 279-2010
- Sanford Vermillion HospitalCritical Access Hospitals 18.43 miles away20 South Plum Street Vermillion South Dakota 57069Voluntary non-profit - Private(605) 677-3500
Nearby Dialysis
- Fresenius Medical Care Dakota Dunes, LLC12.21 miles away357 W Tower Rd North Sioux City South Dakota 57049Dialysis Stations: 5 (605) 232-1901
- Fmc Midwest Dialysis16.73 miles away4000 Indian Hills Dr Sioux City Iowa 51108CMS Rating: 4 stars Dialysis Stations: 16 (712) 239-4333
- Siouxland Dialysis18 miles away2530 Glenn Ave. Sioux City Iowa 51106Dialysis Stations: 24 (712) 266-1000