Health and personal care

 

CSCI Key Inspection Report

 

These are the outcomes that people staying in care homes should experience. They reflect the things that people have said are important to them:

 

People’s health, personal and social care needs are met. The home has a plan of care that the person, or someone close to them, has been involved in making. If they take medicine, they manage it themselves if they can. If they cannot manage their medicine, the care home supports them with it, in a safe way. People’s right to privacy is respected and the support they get from staff is given in a way that maintains their dignity.

 

If people are approaching the end of their life, the care home will respect their choices and help them feel comfortable and secure. They, and people close to them, are reassured that their death will be handled with sensitivity, dignity and respect, and take account of their spiritual and cultural wishes.

 

 

This is what people staying in this care home experience:

 

Judgement:

 

People using this service experience good quality outcomes in this area. We have made this judgement using a range of evidence, including a visit to this service.

 

The health, personal care and social needs of people who live in the home are met effectively by the staff team in a way that enables them to maintain their privacy and dignity.

 

Evidence:

 

We looked at the care plans of three people who live at Stone House, to check the care they receive. They were well written and each file contained assessments done before people had moved into the home, care plans, risk assessments, health care details, funeral details and a pen picture of each person showing a history of their life. Daily report sheets were good and staff noted any changes to people so there was a good running record about their health. Activities they had done and any visitors they had received were also recorded so that staff and other people could see that people were well and active.

 

All files we saw had reviews of the care plans and these were up to date and still effective. Many of the people in the home were not able to confirm that they had been involved in planning or reviewing their own care but were able to tell us that staff helped them when they needed it, such as with personal care tasks. People told us "The staff are very friendly", "Very caring and approachable staff" and "Staff are generally quick and efficient". Risk assessments were included in the care plans we looked at. These were up to date and had been carried out for moving and handling and falls. The risk assessments were completed to make sure that people were safe in their daily activities and that any help they might need was identified.

 

The files that we looked at were very full because they contained, for example, daily diary sheets that were more than a year old. As this could cause confusion for staff,
because of the amount of old information available, we recommended that some of this information should be moved out of the current file so that staff could easily be
sure that the information in the care files being used everyday was up to date and accurate.

 

The medication system used at the home is a monitored dosage blister pack system that is stored in a locked cupboard. Medication administration record sheets were
completed when the medication is administered. There is a medication administration policy for the home available to the staff and all staff who administer medication to people who live in the home have been trained. Storage and recording systems for controlled drugs are available but no controlled drugs were being used at the home at the time of our visit. One of our pharmacy inspectors had visited the home on 12 November 2008 to check the medications management. Some problems were found with recording medicines in the home and the pharmacy inspector had found there were occasions during the night when none of the staff on duty had received training on giving out medicines. Requirements had been made and these have been dealt with separately to this inspection.

 

Visits from health care professionals were recorded and it was seen that GPs, district nurses, dentist, chiropodist, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, and opticians visited the home regularly to make sure people living there remain well. Also visits to the eye clinic, consultants and hearing aid clinic were undertaken. A GP we spoke with on the day of our visit to the home told us, "This is a lovely home and a pleasure to visit. I particularly like the small communal rooms which means people can wander to different rooms depending on what they want to do".

 

 

Read about 'Daily Life and Social Activities'