Fountain West Health Center is one of just a couple nursing homes located in West Des Moines, Iowa. We awarded this nursing home an overall grade of C. A grade in this range requires some respectable scores. You could certainly do worse than this facility. This nursing home didn't excel in all of our categories, but it did not receive any rock-bottom grades either. Additional information about its category grades can be found below.
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Fountain West Health Center
- Nursing Home
- Assisted Living
Updated Apr 1, 2023 by Nick Reese
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- Accepts Medicare 1
- Accepts Medicaid 1
- Is CCRC
- Has Resident Council
- No Family Council
- For profit - Corporation
- Offers Inpatient Rehab
Specialized Services
- Personal Care
- Medication Management
- Home Making
- Transportation
- Speech Therapy
- IV Antibiotic Therapy
- Dentistry
- Wound Care
- Occupational Therapy
- Podiatry
- Physical Therapy
- Nutritional Counseling
- Recreational Therapy
- Pain Management
- Optometry
- Audiology
- Orthopedic Rehabilitation
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Registered Staff Hours
Facility Inspections
This nursing home received a solid overall grade as described above, but we really wanted to point out its excellent health inspections in recent years. We awarded them an impressive grade of A- in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in computing our inspection ratings. One of those factors is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is usually more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some can be quite minor. This facility was assessed 7 deficiencies on its inspection report, but fortunately none of the deficiencies were considered severe. This means that the government inspectors did not deem any of these deficiencies to pose an immediate threat to resident safety or health. A couple of minor deficiencies should not lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.
Long-term Care Quality
We also awarded this facility a respectable grade in the area of long-term care, where we awarded it a grade of C. In a long-term care setting, the nursing home's primary objective is to maintain residents' quality of life and keep them safe. On top of considering the amount of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. We were a bit worried that this facility administered the vaccine to just 84.4898 percent of its patients. Nevertheless, this nursing home keeps its patients out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.02 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.
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Nurse Quality
Turning to another strength for this facility, it also received an elite nursing rating. In fact, we gave this nursing home a score of D. There are numerous datapoints included in this category. Many of the factors reflect 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. Lastly, we also assessed some nursing quality-based metrics in determining our nursing grades. This place performed well in the area of minimizing its residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We consider these areas to be reliable measures of the quality of nursing care.
Short-term Care Quality
The last area we graded was short-term care, which was this nursing home's worst category. We awarded this facility a grade of D in that category. Short-term care grades are commonly used to measure a facility's performance with rehabilitation. In order to have quality rehabilitation services, facilities generally must have higher levels of highly skilled nursing. These types of services include registered nurses, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and other types of therapists. Not surprisingly, we found that this nursing home provides far less physical therapist and registered nurse hours per resident than the average facility. The final datapoint we considered in this category is the percentage of patients that returned home from the nursing home. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this area as well, with just 4.5 percent of its patients returning home.
Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Fountain West Health Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
In Fountain West Health Center, 6.16% of Patients had Pressure Ulcers
This indicates the percent of long-term residents who have pressure ulcers. We've found that pressure ulcers are a solid indicator of a facility's nursing care quality.
Minimizes Serious Falls
In Fountain West Health Center, 3.87% of Patients had Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of patients who suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in major injury are considered to be an indicator of nursing care at a nursing home. Major falls are often caused by lower levels of patient supervision.
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
In Fountain West Health Center, 3.28% of Patients had UTIs
This metric indicates the percent of long-term patients that suffered from UTI's. UTI's could be an indication of lower quality nursing care. However, this statistic may also be skewed for certain nursing homes due to varying reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
In Fountain West Health Center, 17.54% of Patients use Anti-Psychotic Medication
This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term stay residents receiving antipsychotic drugs. While antipsychotic medications serve an important medical purpose, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used appropriately. In limited situations, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may mean that a nursing home is using these medications to control patient behavior.
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
In Fountain West Health Center, 19.26% of Patients use Anti-Anxiety Medication
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term stay patients taking antianxiety medications.
Managing Depression Among Residents
In Fountain West Health Center, 4.67% of Patients
This metric measures the percentage of long-term stay patients who are showing symptoms of depression.
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
In Fountain West Health Center, 93.67% of Patients
This datapoint is a measure of the percentage of long-term stay patients that were given the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be very dangerous for seniors, making these vaccines indispensable.
Residents Maintain Autonomy
In Fountain West Health Center, 17.07% Percentage of Patients
This is a measure of the percent of long-term residents that needed more assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as moving around and bathing.
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
In Fountain West Health Center, 16.9% Percentage of Residents
This datapoint measures the percent of long-term patients who retained mobility levels. Some argue that the ability to move around is important for patients mental and physical well-being.
Hospitalizations
In Fountain West Health Center, 1.48 Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
This is the number of hospitalizations per thousand days of patient care. There is typically a correlation between staying out of the hospital and the quality of care.
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
In Fountain West Health Center, 16.9 Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
This is the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Short-term Care: ER Visits
In Fountain West Health Center, 12.73 Percentage of Patients
This indicates the number of emergency room visits per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
In Fountain West Health Center, 77.73% Percentage of Resident
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of short-term stay patients who experienced functional improvements.
Nearby Hospitals
- Broadlawns Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 4.61 miles away1801 Hickman Road Des Moines Iowa 50314Government - Local(515) 282-2200
- Iowa Methodist Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 4.74 miles away1200 Pleasant Street Des Moines Iowa 50309Voluntary non-profit - Private(515) 241-6212
- Mercyone Des Moines Medical CenterAcute Care Hospitals 5.15 miles away1111 6th Ave Des Moines Iowa 50314Voluntary non-profit - Private(515) 247-3121
- Iowa Lutheran HospitalAcute Care Hospitals 5.93 miles away700 East University Avenue Des Moines Iowa 50316Voluntary non-profit - Private(515) 263-5612
Nearby Dialysis
- Davita Windsor Heights Dialysis0.67 miles away1119 73rd St Windsor Heights Iowa 50324Dialysis Stations: 12 (515) 274-9303
- West Des Moines Dialysis4.02 miles away6800 Lake Dr #185 West Des Moines Iowa 50266Dialysis Stations: 10 (515) 221-2944
- Central Des Moines Dialysis4.65 miles away1215 Pleasant #106 Des Moines Iowa 50309Dialysis Stations: 20 (515) 241-5715
- Riverpoint Dialysis Unit5.53 miles away501 Sw 7th St Ste B Des Moines Iowa 50309Dialysis Stations: 16 (515) 283-1300
- Fmc - Mercy5.58 miles away95 University Ste. 11 Des Moines Iowa 50314Dialysis Stations: 21 (515) 244-0379
- East Des Moines Dialysis6.08 miles away1301 Pennsylvania Ave Ste 208 Des Moines Iowa 50316Dialysis Stations: 16 (515) 262-5995
- Fmc - Dialysis Services Des Moines South7 miles away6651 Sw 9th St Des Moines Iowa 50315Dialysis Stations: 19 (515) 285-3032
- Ankeny Dialysis12.88 miles away2625 N Ankeny Blvd Ankeny Iowa 50023Dialysis Stations: 12 (515) 963-3174