Pinnacle Specialty Care
1223 Prairieview Road, Cedar Falls IA 50613 · (319) 268-0489 · 86.2% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Pinnacle Specialty Care is one of five nursing homes located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. We awarded this facility an overall grade of B+. A score in this range requires favorable marks in most areas. Remarkably, the nursing homes in Cedar Falls received high scores across the board, making this one of the better places in Iowa to find a nursing home. The best aspect of this nursing home's strong report card is its inspection reports. Inspection reports are discussed in the next section
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 100 Beds
CCRC :
Non profit - Corporation
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
One of the reasons this turned out to be a strong facility is that it received a very impressive inspection grade. Inspections is its best category grade. In that category, we awarded it an A. Inspection ratings weigh several factors, including deficiencies and substantiated complaints. You can learn more about each of these issues by reviewing copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. Fortunately, although this nursing home had some minor dings on its inspection report, it had no severe deficiencies. Severe deficiencies are labeled as categories G through L. This tells you that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies on this facility's report to pose an imminent threat to patient safety or health. A couple relatively minor deficiencies are not something to panic about.
Nurse Quality
One of the other reasons we rated this nursing home so highly is that it earned a very impressive nursing rating. In that category, we gave this facility an A-. In computing a facility's nursing rating, we weigh the quantity of hours nurses are seeing residents and the levels of training of those nurses. This facility provided 3.1 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 generally be prevented if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.
Short-term Care Quality
This nursing home truly excelled in the category of short-term care, where we awarded it a grade of A-. Few facilities performed better in this area. In determining our short-term care grades, we look at the nursing home's levels of highly skilled nursing services, which includes registered nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists and other licensed professionals. This score is often a useful assessment of a nursing home's ability to rehabilitate patients. When we assessed this facility's nursing hours, we found it offered more care from registered nurses than most nursing homes. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of residents who were able to return home from this facility. It outperformed the vast majority of nursing homes in the country with 56.6 percent of its patients returning home.
Long-term Care Quality
The next category we graded was long-term care. It received an F in this category, which is a very poor score. We would not simply disqualify a facility as a result of one concerning category though. Facilities that don't fare well in long-term care typically are not as well-staffed and are lagging in some of the areas of routine personal care we assessed. One of the data points we considered on top of nurse's aid hours is vaccines. Frankly, we were a bit bothered by the fact that this facility provided the pneumonia vaccine to a relatively low 88.84892 percent of its patients. To our surprise, this nursing home was actually decent at keeping its residents out of the hospital. Indeed, it had only 0.71 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days. This was its best score in this category.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Pinnacle Specialty Care Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic is an indication of the percent of long-term stay patients which have new or worsened pressure ulcers. We find that pressure ulcers are a solid barometer of the quality of nursing care a facility provides.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This datapoint indicates the percentage of long-term patients who sustained a fall which caused serious injury. This is one of the statistics we use in computing nursing grades.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This is the percent of residents that sustained a urinary tract infection. Urinary tract infections are considered by many in the nursing home industry to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are often caused by lower quality nursing care. Nevertheless, this datapoint can also be skewed for certain nursing homes due to different reporting standards for urinary tract infections.
Percent of Patients with UTIs
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Psychotic Medication
This datapoint is a measure of the percent of long-term stay patients who are prescribed antipsychotic drugs. High levels of antipsychotic drug use may indicate that a nursing home is using these medications to subdue residents in scenarios where such drugs aren't medically required. However, some facilities may need to rely on these drugs due to having more residents suffering from cognitive disorders.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This indicates the percentage of patients prescribed antianxiety drugs. These drugs are prescribed to residents suffering from anxiety and depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Managing Depression Among Residents
This tells you the percentage of residents who are exhibiting symptoms of depression.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
This is the percentage of residents who received the flu and pneumonia vaccines. Higher vaccination rates should be standard at this point.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
This is the percentage of residents who needed increased assistance with activities of daily living over time. High levels of dependence on staff for assistance with ADL's may be a sign of deterioration of a resident's medical condition.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percentage of residents that were able to retain mobility over time. Retaining mobility is often a good sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This is a measure of 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 is a measure of the number of rehospitalizations per 1,000 days of short-term care. Avoiding rehospitalizations during rehabilitation is critical to restoring the physical well-being of residents.
Percentage of Residents Rehospitalized
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: ER Visits
This is a measure of the number of times residents are sent to the emergency room per 1,000 days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This tells you the percent of short-term stay patients that saw functional improvements, such as enhanced ability to perform activities of daily living. High levels of performance with activities of daily living often correlates with successful rehabilitation.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better