Plaza Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center
456 Rahway Avenue, Elizabeth NJ 07202 · (908) 354-1300 · 86.09% estimated occupancy 1Updated: Aug 1, 2020 · By Sara Levinsohn
Plaza Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center is a large nursing home located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We awarded it an overall grade of C, which is a middle of the pack grade. This nursing home seems to have some things working in its favor. The best part of this nursing home's profile is its stellar inspection rating. Inspection grades are discussed in the next section.
Additional Details:
Accepts Medicare 1 :
Accepts Medicaid 1 : 128 Beds
CCRC :
For profit - Limited Liability company
Resident Council:
Family Council:
Medical Staff Hours Per Patient (2019)
Facility Inspections
The main reason this ended up being a decent nursing home is that it received an elite inspection grade. In fact, its inspection score was far superior to its overall grade. In the inspections category, we gave this facility a grade of A+. Inspection scores are based on several items located in the a nursing home's recent inspection reports. Places that receive favorable grades in this category typically have few deficiencies on their reports. Most importantly, these places generally do not have any severe deficiencies which are associated with risks to patient safety. This place received 3 deficiencies on its inspection report, but we were relieved to see that none were considered severe. This tells you that CMS did not deem any of these deficiencies an imminent risk to resident safety or health. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is always a good sign.
Long-term Care Quality
This facility also was given a strong grade in our long-term care category. We awarded this nursing home a better than average grade of B+ in this category. Facilities that receive this type of score in this category tend to provide consistent around the clock care to make sure patients are well cared for. In addition to assessing the volume of care provided by nurses aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 81.92488 percent of its residents. This is slightly lower than we expected but still a decent percentage. The last datapoint we assessed was the facility's hospitalization rate. We found that this place had 1.86 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, which is close to average in this area.
Nurse Quality
Another strength of this facility is its favorable grade in nursing. We awarded them one of our better scores in that area, with a grade of D. The nursing grade considers a number of datapoints. The most important variable is the number of hours nurses spent with residents. With a meager 2.7 hours of nursing care per resident per day, this place's nurse staffing levels were significantly below the national average. Unfortunately, this place also had terrible scores in some of the quality-based metrics to pair with its low nursing hours. We looked at the percentage of patients suffering pressure ulcers and we were disappointed. This facility was at roughly 150 percent of the national average in this statistic. This is likely a bad sign in light of the fact that so many pressure ulcers could be avoided with better nursing care. This metric helped pull down this nursing home's nursing score significantly.
Short-term Care Quality
The final area we analyzed was short-term care, which is this nursing home's weakest area. It received a lowly F for this area, which is clearly very disappointing. In our short-term care grade, we seek to create a fair barometer for rehabilitation. In this process, we look at a facility's levels of highly-skilled nursing services, including both registered nurses and physical therapy, as well as occupational therapy. Based on its score in this category, we weren't stunned to discover that this facility is well below average in terms of the number of registered nurse and physical therapy hours provided to its residents based on the data we looked at. The final measure we assessed in this category is the number of residents that eventually returned home from the nursing home. This nursing home struggled quite a bit in this metric as well, with just 29.4 percent of its patients returning home.
Overall Rating Over Time
Compared to national and state averages across all facilities.
Plaza Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center Quality Metrics
Minimizes Pressure Ulcers
This statistic is a measure of the percent of long-term patients that have new or worsened pressure ulcers . We use this statistic in calculating both nursing and long-term care grades.
Percent of Patients with Pressure Ulcers
Lower is Better
Minimizes Serious Falls
This indicates the percentage of residents that suffered from a major fall. Falls leading to severe injury are routinely the result of lower levels of patient supervision. Better nursing protocols can minimize the number of major falls sustained by residents in a nursing home.
Percent of Patients with Serious Falls
Lower is Better
Minimizes Urinary Tract Infections
This indicates the percentage of patients that sustained a urinary tract infection. UTI's are considered by many experts to be a measure of the quality of nursing care . UTI's are routinely associated with a facility with worst hygiene practices. However, this metric may be misleading for some nursing homes 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 residents who were given antipsychotic medications. These drugs are sometimes used for treating several conditions, including dementia.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriately Uses Anti-Anxiety Medication
This figure indicates the percentage of long-term residents who were administered 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 patients showing signs of depression. Increased rates of depression could indicate lower quality care.
Percent of Patients
Lower is Better
Appropriate Vaccine Usage
Measures the percent of long-term residents that were administered the pneumonia and flu vaccines. Respiratory viruses can be fatal for nursing home residents, making these types of vaccines indispensable.
Percent of Patients
Higher is Better
Residents Maintain Autonomy
Measures the percentage of long-term residents that needed additional assistance with activities of daily living over time. ADL's include activities such as getting dressed and eating. Many argue this is a reasonable measure of a resident's well-being.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Ability to Keep Residents Mobile
This tells you the percent of residents who retained mobility levels over time. Optimizing mobility is often a great sign for residents' well-being.
Percentage of Residents
Higher is Better
Hospitalizations
This datapoint measures the number of times residents are hospitalized per thousand days of patient care. Minimizing hospitalizations is critical to the physical health of residents.
Hospitalizations per 1,000 resident days
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Rehospitalizations
This metric measures the number of times residents are rehospitalized per thousand days of short-term resident care. Staying out of the hospital during rehabilitation is important 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 thousand days of short-term patient care.
Percentage of Patients
Lower is Better
Short-term Care: Facilitates Functional Improvement
This is the percent of short-term care residents who experienced functional improvements, such as with activities of daily living. Higher levels of performance with activities of daily living often correlates with superior rehabilitation services.
Percentage of Resident
Higher is Better