Heritage Specialty Care
200 Clive Drive Sw, Cedar Rapids IA 52404 · (319) 396-7171 · 58.8% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Heritage Specialty Care is one of nine nursing homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We have a high opinion of this nursing home, which we gave an A- overall. We were also impressed with the city grade of nursing homes in Cedar Rapids, making this a great place to find a nursing home. This is just about as good of a place as you're going to find. This place's impressive report card was highlighted by its inspection reports, which you can find in the next paragraph.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 201 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the many reasons this turned out to be a quality nursing home is that it received an A+ inspection grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this critical category. Inspection ratings are tied to several datapoints found on the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Nursing homes that score well in this category have very few deficiencies on those reports. Most importantly, these nursing homes should not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This particular nursing home received 5 deficiencies on its inspection report. Overall, this is still a good inspection report, but we'd always recommend looking into any deficiencies you find troubling.
Long-term Care Quality
Among its many high-end scores, this facility was given a strong long-term care grade. In fact, it received a grade of A- in this area. When nursing homes receive this type of grade in this category it is a good sign for patient care and suggests that the facility is well-staffed with nurses and aids. One of the criteria we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. This nursing home provided the pneumonia vaccine to 100 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a proven method to avoid negative health outcomes for the senior population. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1.45 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility had less hospitalizations than the majority of nursing homes.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home also received a strong nursing score. In fact, we awarded it an above average grade of B+ in this area. Nursing ratings are largely based on a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This facility provided 3.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This place performed better than average in this area. This is often a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can frequently be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.
Short-term Care Quality
In the last category we assessed, this facility received a very strong grade of B+ in our short-term care category. With this grade, the nursing home wrapped up a very favorable report card. Our short-term care scores are based in part on the nursing home's quantity of highly-skilled skilled healthcare professionals. This includes a vast spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and speech therapists, not to mention other variations of therapy. This nursing home is respectable both in terms of its quantity of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents. Finally, we assessed the percentage of patients that who were able to eventually return home from this facility. It performed better than most facilities in the country in this area with 50.5 percent of its residents returning home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Heritage Specialty Care Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This is the percentage of residents that suffered from a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers, also referred to as bed sores, are routinely caused by residents not being moved frequently enough. Better nursing protocols can minimize the number of pressure ulcers sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percentage of long-term residents that had a fall which caused major injury. This is one of the statistics we use in calculating our nursing scores.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This datapoint indicates the percent of long-term stay patients that have had a urinary tract infection. UTI's could be an indicator of lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this statistic could also be misleading for some nursing homes due to inconsistent reporting standards for UTI's.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This indicates the percent of patients who were prescribed antipsychotic medications. While antipsychotic medications may be vital to many residents, it is important to ensure these drugs are being used only where medically required. In limited cases, excessive reliance on these medications may suggest a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This metric tells you the percentage of long-term patients taking antianxiety medications.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percentage of patients who are demonstrating signs of depression. High rates of depression could imply worse patient care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This datapoint measures the percentage of long-term stay residents who were given the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be deadly for seniors, making these vaccines important for resident well-being.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is a measure of the percentage of long-term residents who required increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. Activities of daily living include activities such as dressing and bathing. Some experts would argue that this is a reliable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This metric is a measure of the percentage of long-term care patients that retained mobility levels. Some experts would argue that mobility is vital to residents' mental and physical well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This metric tracks the number of times residents are hospitalized per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of times residents are rehospitalized per 1,000 days of short-term resident care. Keeping residents out of the hospital during rehabilitation is key to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
Measures the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term care. Avoiding emergency medical situations is one way to gauge short-term care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term residents that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better