Inspection on 22/04/10 for Abbey Lodge Care Home
Also see our care home review for Abbey Lodge Care Home for more information
This is the latest available inspection report for this service, carried out on 22nd April 2010.
CQC found this care home to be providing an Adequate service.
The inspector found no outstanding requirements from the previous inspection report, but made 3 statutory requirements (actions the home must comply with) as a result of this inspection.
Other inspections for this house
Abbey Lodge Care Home 04/12/08
Abbey Lodge Care Home 25/02/08
Abbey Lodge Care Home 13/06/06
Abbey Lodge Care Home 19/10/05
Abbey Lodge Care Home 10/08/05
Abbey Lodge Care Home 25/01/05
Abbey Lodge Care Home 08/06/04
Similar services:
What follows are excerpts from this inspection report. For more information read the full report on the next tab.
What the care home does well
The inspection showed that people living at Abbey Lodge are being helped and supported by a staff group who are very respectful and sensitive to the individual needs of older people, including those who may have dementia care needs. Staff know people`s needs well and they listen to what people have to say and provide them with choices as to how to spend their time. The environment is well maintained, and varied activities help to make people`s day to day lives more interesting. The home is decorated in a homely style and there are plenty of items for people to look at or to use, to provide a more stimulating lifestyle, where one day is different to the next. Jugs of juice, biscuits and sweets were seen in the lounges. Whilst we did not see people helping themselves, we did see carers offering these items to people. The surveys received from people living at Abbey Lodge generally respond `always` or `usually` to questions like:Do you receive the care and support you need, Are the staff available when you need them, and Do the staff listen and act on what you say. One person though only responded `sometimes` to the last two questions and another person also responded `sometimes` when asked whether they always got the medical support they needed. People`s comments about Abbey Lodge include `cleanliness`, `good cooking` and `they try very hard`. The Expert by Experience also received positive comments from people she spoke with. One person said they were very happy and that staff would always help with anything. Another commented that they were very comfortable living at Abbey Lodge and a third commented that there was more going on now. We spoke to two relatives who were visiting the home. One person said they were very satisfied with the care their relative received and had been informed promptly when their relative had a health concern. The other said they were `delighted` with the care, adding the home was `brilliant` and had improved a lot in the past year. They said a complaint about the care their relative received had been looked into properly and they were satisfied with the response. They told us they would like to move their relative nearer to their own home, but didn`t think they could find another place as good as Abbey Lodge. We spoke with a visiting health care professional who told us they thought staff were `kind` and `very nice`, and they had never seen anything untoward happening when they had visited there. They said communication had generally improved and better records were now being kept. Some care records that we looked at provided detailed information about people`s day-today care. They were written in a way that emphasised people`s abilities and the help they needed from carers to maintain these life skills. They identified what made one person different to another and how carers would support these individual differences. One staff member spoken with described the care plans as a `manual of what people need and what they like`.Staff surveys told us that they like working at Abbey Lodge and get good support from the managers. Comments include. `Residents are getting good quality care` and `we care for everybody`s needs`. At the last inspection a year ago we made requirements around medication practises, and how complaints were managed. The manager submitted an improvement plan following that visit in which she said that changes had been made to the way the home operated to ensure these requirements were now being met. The AQAA completed earlier this year also commented that there were systems in place to make sure these practises were being maintained. These improvements were not formally checked at this visit.
What the care home could do better:
The reporting of incidents within the home, where people are harmed or put at risk of harm, needs to be much more robust. We saw that the care records reported such an incident, but it had not been reported to the appropriate people as a safeguarding alert, because the managers told us they had not known that the incident had taken place. Whilst the care records describe people`s preferences and wishes, the home should work to ensure these preferences are being met. For example one person said they preferred a bath on an evening, but the only reference to bathing in their daily records over the previous six weeks was that they had a shower on a morning. The daily records, completed by carers, need to provide a more accurate and rounded account of people`s daily lives. And these records need to be monitored to make sure they are being completed properly. The managers said they would make immediate changes to ensure accurate information was both recorded and properly passed on during handovers. People`s care plans need to be amended as their needs change. This would ensure they are an accurate reflection of the care people receive. For example one person had lost weight recently, possibly because of a health problem. The care records need to evidence what extra care the person is receiving to enable them to regain their usual weight. This written information also enables care staff to check that they are giving the right care. People need accurate assessments of the risk of them coming to harm. Only by completing these assessments can the manager identify whether measures need to be taken to minimise that risk. One person`s care records did not have an assessment looking into the prevention of falls. Though the records state that the individual has not fallen, the care home still needs to look at that risk, even when the risk is perceived as low, so they can check they are doing all they should be, to keep the person safe.