Life Care Center of Elkhorn
20275 Hopper Street, Elkhorn NE 68022 · (402) 289-2572 · 75.11% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Nick Lata
Life Care Center of Elkhorn is a large nursing home located in Elkhorn, Nebraska. Our grading system was not favorable to this facility, as we gave it an overall score of F. If you are not happy with this facility's poor overall grade, you may find your options to be limited in Elkhorn. The city has just one other nursing home. We wouldn't blame you if you are ready to stop reading and find another facility. However, if you want to learn more about this facility's category grades, we will discuss short-term care in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 135 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Short-term Care Quality
Even though this facility's overall grade was abysmal, it fared well in our short-term care rating. We gave it a B+ for that category, which is one of our better scores. This is one of the only positive things we could find to say about this facility. In crafting these short-term care grades, we analyze the nursing home's skilled nursing services, such as those performed by registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. Our goal is to create a measure for sizing up the rehabilitation services of different facilities. When we looked at this facility's physical therapist hours, we found it offered more hours of physical therapy per day to its residents than most nursing homes. The last item we looked at in this category is the percentage of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return to the community. We found that it fared as well as just about any facility in Nebraska in this area with 62.9 percent of its residents returning home. With most nursing homes, fewer than half of their short-stay residents are able to return home.
Nurse Quality
This nursing home really excelled in our nursing category, where it received an C. Few nursing homes fared better in this category. Nursing ratings are mostly tied to a nursing home's nurse staffing. This facility provides 3.3 hours of nursing care per patient on a daily basis. This is a lower figure than we were hoping for. Finally, despite not having the highest total nursing hours, this place performed admirably in the metric of preventing major falls. This is usually an indicator that a place has sufficient quality controls in place.
Facility Inspections
We also wanted to draw your attention to this place's inspection grade where it received an F. When a facility has this poor of an inspection grade, you should look for severe deficiencies on its inspection report. Severe deficiencies indicate a threat to patient safety. This facility was assessed 6 deficiencies by CMS. The only positive thing we can say is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that suggest they posed a risk to patient health or safety. Lastly, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that this nursing home received significant government fines recently of over $50,000. This usually suggests that inspectors grew tired after several years of bad government inspections.
Long-term Care Quality
The next area we graded is long-term care. It received a lowly F for this area, which is a rock bottom grade. Facilities that do not fare well in long-term care often don't provide as much nursing care and also may be struggling in a few of the areas of routine healthcare services we assessed. Once we looked at the quantity of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we then analyzed the facility's vaccination record. Unfortunately, this nursing home vaccinated just 30.1676 percent of its patients for pneumonia. To our surprise, this nursing home was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 1.58 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. This was its best score in this category.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Life Care Center of Elkhorn Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This tells you the percent of patients who have had a pressure ulcer. Pressure ulcers are skin damage due to remaining in the same position for an excessive period of time.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This tells you the percent of residents who suffered from a major fall. Falls resulting in severe injuries are considered to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . Major falls are often the result of lower quality nursing care.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This figure is a measure of the percentage of long-term patients that sustained UTI's. UTI's may be a sign of lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this datapoint may be misleading for some facilities due to inconsistent reporting standards for infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This tells you the percentage of patients who were given antipsychotic medications. Antipsychotic medications are given to residents for many conditions, including dementia. Tragically, in some cases, high levels of antipsychotic drug use may suggest that a nursing home is using these drugs to control patient behavior.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This statistic is an indication of the percentage of long-term care residents which are administered antianxiety medication. These drugs are given to residents suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This is the percent of patients who are exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is a measure of the percent of long-term patients that received the flu and pneumonia vaccines.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This tells you the percentage of patients who needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This indicates the percentage of residents that remained mobile levels over time. Retaining mobility can be a great sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This datapoint is a measure of the number of hospitalizations per 1,000 days of patient care.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This indicates the number of rehospitalizations per thousand days of short-term care. There is usually a correlation between staying out of the hospital and a nursing homes short-term rehabilitation performance.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This metric tracks the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percentage of short-term stay patients that experienced functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better