The Bridges at Ankeny

To pair with its favorable overall score, we gave this facility an A+ for our inspection category. Inspection grades weigh several factors, including deficiencies and federal fines. You can learn more about each of these items by obtaining copies of nursing homes' inspection reports. This nursing home received 2 deficiencies on its inspection report, but none were considered to be severe deficiencies. This indicates that the government inspectors did not consider any of the deficiencies to pose an imminent threat to patient health or safety. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Another reason we assessed this nursing home so favorably is that it was given an A+ short-term care grade. This is flat out as good as it gets in this area. Short-term care scores are crucial for people looking for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation usually utilizes additional skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing includes a vast scope of nursing services, spanning from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other variations of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every nursing home employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we assessed in this area is the percentage of patients who were able to return home from the facility. We found that 6.8 percent of this nursing home's patients returned home as opposed to remaining at the facility on a permanent basis.

Another reason we rated this nursing home so highly is that it received an A+ nursing grade. This is simply as good as it gets in this category. When calculating our nursing scores, we look at both staffing levels and the training levels of the nurses. This facility provided 0.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, we also looked at several nursing quality-based metrics and this place excelled in some of these areas. With less than five percent of its residents sustaining pressure ulcers, it performed as well as any place the nation in this category. This is generally a good indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can many times be prevented by offering better nursing care, such as employing a system of moving patients at least once a day.

Turning to our final area, this nursing home also performed well in our long-term care category. In fact, we awarded it a grade of A- in that area. This wrapped up truly elite profile. When facilities receive a score in this range in this category it typically means it has plenty of staff and is an overall good place to live on a permanent basis. In addition to assessing the quantity of care provided by aids and other staff, we looked at the percentage of residents vaccinated against pneumonia. This nursing home administered the vaccine to 100 percent of its residents. Vaccines are vital to keeping patients healthy. Lastly, this facility was able to limit hospitalizations. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is a remarkably low figure.