Polk City Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

Polk City Nursing & Rehabilitation Center is the sole option we identified in Polk City, Iowa. We awarded it an overall grade of C, which is a middle of the pack rating. In our view, this facility looks like a solid choice for most people. One of the highlights of this facility's profile is its strong inspection grade, which you can find in the next section.

The primary reason this turned out to be a decent nursing home is that it received an excellent inspection score. In fact, its inspection score was far superior to its overall grade. In our inspections category, we gave this facility a grade of A-. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating these inspection ratings. One critical factor is health deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the number of deficiencies, as some end up being quite minor. This nursing home was assessed 4 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This tells you that the government inspectors did not deem any of the deficiencies to pose an immediate risk to resident health or safety. A couple minor deficiencies shouldn't lead you to cross a nursing home off your list.

This nursing home also received a strong grade in our nursing category. We awarded this nursing home an above average grade of B+ in this area. Nursing grades are primarily tied to a nursing home's level of nurse staffing. This nursing home averages 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Lastly, we also assessed certain nursing quality measures in computing our nursing grades. These include minimizing residents' pressure ulcers and major falls. We look at these statistics as predictive indicators of the quality of nursing care offered, since better care tends to reduce these problems.

The third most favorable category we gave this facility in any category came in the category of short-term care, where we gave it a B-. In determining our short-term care grades, we assess the facility's skilled nursing services, including those performed by registered nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists and other types of therapists. The purpose is to devise a tool for sizing up the rehabilitation services of various nursing homes. Unfortunately, this nursing home was below average in terms of its number of physical therapy and registered nurse hours provided to its residents based on the metrics we assessed. The real question is whether this adversely impacted quality of care. Lastly, we assessed the percentage of residents that were able to return home from this facility. We found that 35.1 percent of this facility's patients were able to return home. This figure was quite a bit below average.

The final area we analyzed was long-term care, which proved to be this facility's weakest category. It received a lowly F in this category, which is obviously very concerning. If you are looking for services other than short-term rehabilitation, you should take a close look at each nursing home's long-term care grades. On top of assessing the volume of care provided by aids and other staff, we also looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated for pneumonia. This facility vaccinated 100 percent of its patients, which is better than the majority of nursing homes. Surprisingly, this nursing home was able to limit hospitalizations. With only 1 hospitalizations per 1,000 long-term resident days, this nursing home had fewer hospitalizations than many nursing homes. Sadly, some of its other scores in this category were not as favorable as these.