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Showing results for tags 'Care home'.
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News Article
UK healthcare regulator brands resuscitation strategy unacceptable
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Elderly care home residents have been categorised “en masse” as not requiring resuscitation, in a strategy branded unacceptable by the healthcare regulator. People in care homes in Hove, East Sussex and south Wales are among those who have had “do not attempt resuscitation” (DNAR) notices applied to their care plans during the coronavirus outbreak without proper consultation with them or their families, MPs and medical unions fear. Care homes in Leeds have reported that district nurses have been asking them to “revisit do not resuscitate conversations with people who said they didn’t want them” and a care worker in Wales told the Guardian that after a visit from a GP, all 20 of their residents had DNAR notices attached to their plans. DNAR notices are a common part of care plans and many people wish to have them in place because, in the event of cardiac arrest, attempts to resuscitate can cause serious trauma, including broken bones. But the Care Quality Commission and other medical bodies are so concerned about the blanket application of the notices that it has issued a warning to stop. “It is unacceptable for advance care plans, with or without DNAR form completion, to be applied to groups of people of any description,” the notice states. “These decisions must continue to be made on an individual basis according to need.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 April 2020 -
News Article
Hospice receives outstanding CQC rating
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has awarded 'Outstanding' ratings to St Giles Hospice in Walsall and Whittington. The CQC, an independent regulator of health and social care services in England, has recently introduced a new regime holding hospices to the same level of scrutiny as hospitals, making this outstanding rating all the more impressive. St Giles hospice, founded in 1983, started as a charity caring for local people dying from cancer and now supports people living with incurable illnesses and their families for free. Care providers from the hospice work on-site and in patients’ own homes, and their level of care has made them one of only a handful of hospices to ever have been awarded this accolade. In the CQC report inspectors complimented the hospice for its “compassionate” range of speciality services. Inspectors added: “People were truly respected and valued as individuals. They were empowered as partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by an exceptional and distinctive service.” Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 16 January 2020 -
News Article
Dementia patient’s family feel let down over death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The daughter of a man with dementia who died after being pushed by another patient in a care facility, has said her family has been let down by authorities. John O'Reilly died a week after sustaining a head injury at a dementia care unit in County Armagh. The 83-year-old was pushed twice by the same patient in the days leading up to the fatal incident. His family were not made aware of this until after his death. On 4 December 2018, Mr O'Reilly was pushed by another dementia patient causing him to hit his head off a wall. His family have said he was pushed with such force that it left a dent in the wall. He was admitted to Craigavon Area Hospital with severe head injuries and died a week later. Last week, an inquest heard that the dementia patient who pushed Mr O'Reilly had a history of aggressive behaviour linked to dementia. The Southern Trust is carrying out as Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) investigation into Mr O'Reilly's death. Maureen McGleenon said: "Our experience of the SAI process has been dreadful. In our view it allows the trust to park the fact that something catastrophic has happened to a family. We were told it would be a 12-week process. It's over a year now and we've expended so much energy trying to figure out this process and find things out for ourselves." She added: "The system just knocks you down and makes you want to give up." "We'll never get over what happened to dad and we can't give up on trying to understand it." Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 January 2020 -
News Article
Two patients die after hospitals ignore key safety warning
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two patients have died as a result of NHS hospitals failing to heed warnings about the use of super-absorbent gel granules, which patients mistakenly eat thinking they are sweets or salt packets. A national patient safety alert has been issued by NHS bosses to all hospitals, ambulance trusts and care homes instructing them to stop using the granules unless in exceptional circumstances. An earlier alert in 2017 warned the granules, which are used to prevent liquid being spilled, had caused the death of one patient who choked to death after eating a sachet left in an empty urine bottle in their room. The 2017 alert warned hospitals there had been a total of 15 similar incidents over a six-year period between 2011 and 2017. The latest warning from NHS England says most hospitals concentrated on “raising awareness” rather than stopping the use of gel granules. Read alert Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 December 2019 -
Content ArticleThis Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry will look at human rights concerns in care settings in England, highlighting areas in which the human rights of patients, older people and others living with long-term disabilities, including learning disabilities and autism, are currently undermined or at risk.
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Content Article
It’s time to rename the ‘visitor’: reflections from a relative
Anonymous posted an article in By patients and public
In my first blog, ‘Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families’, I highlighted how the pandemic has shone a stark spotlight on so many inequities and inconsistencies in access to health and social care. I wanted to draw attention to how visiting restrictions can result in worse outcomes for patients and their families. In my second blog I want to focus on the terms ‘visiting’ and ‘visitor’ and discuss what defines a visitor and why, in my opinion, it requires redefining and renaming. -
Content ArticlePressure ulcers can be serious and lead to life-threatening complications, such as blood poisoning and gangrene. However, taking some simple steps can reduce the chance of pressure ulcers developing. NICE has produced a quick guide for care home managers.
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study in BMJ Open was to develop quality standards that define minimal requirements for safe medication processes in nursing homes. After identifying key topics for medication safety from a systematic search for similar guidelines, prior work and discussions with experts, the authors specified the essential requirements for each key topic. They then evaluated these requirements with a piloted, two-round Delphi study. The study developed 85 quality standards for safer and resident-oriented medication in Swiss nursing homes.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for CNN health, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken discuss the exponential increase in the prescription of the drug Nuedexta to care home residents with dementia in the US. A CNN investigation found that the number of Nuedexta pills dispensed to care home facilities increased by nearly 400% in four years, prompting concerns that it is being inappropriately prescribed. The drug is designed to treat a rare disorder called pseudobulbar affect (PBA) which occurs in only 5% patients with dementia. State regulators have found doctors inappropriately diagnosing nursing home residents with PBA to justify using Nuedexta to treat patients whose confusion and agitation make them difficult to manage. Analysis by CNN also found that nearly half the Nuedexta claims filed with Medicare in 2015 came from doctors who had received money or other perks from the manufacturer.
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Content ArticleThis guide, from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, aims to support day care managers, social workers, commissioners and providers, to restart or continue activities following the COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. It is focused on community-based day services, day centres (with and without personal care), including specialised day centre environments, and those with outdoor spaces.
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Content ArticleNew research by the Health Foundation shows that the amount of hospital care received by those living in care homes in England rapidly declined in the first three months of the pandemic in 2020 and was substantially lower than in the same period in 2019. The research, which is due to be peer reviewed, provides the first comprehensive and national analysis of all hospital care provided to care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic. It appears to substantiate concerns that care home residents (including those in nursing homes and residential care) may have faced barriers to accessing hospital treatment as the NHS rapidly reorganised to free up hospital capacity to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
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Content Article
Preventing COVID-19 infections in care homes
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Guidance
Government guidance on the changes to care home visits. -
Content ArticleCQC review of ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ decisions during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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Content Article
Safe Steps technology
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Community care
Safe Steps Ltd creates digital web applications for UK care homes, local authorities and NHS trusts to help reduce falls for older people and residents. -
Content ArticleThis guidance has been designed to support providers of care homes, premises based support services, school care accommodation, secure care and premises based offender accommodation to ensure they are appropriately assessing and providing staffing levels to meet the needs of people in their care, following the removal of staffing schedules. Inspectors may also refer to this guidance on inspection, for instance where intelligence may lead us to believe that staffing levels are not being appropriately assessed. Examples of this may be evidence of poor outcomes for people, an increase in incidents, number of complaints, staff absence, or a complaint investigation.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Steve Turner, a qualified nurse, specialising in clinical educational and patient engagement, offers up four tips for managing medicines in care home settings, under the following headings: Care Homes must have a medicines policy that is regularly reviewed. People must have an accurate listing of their medicines on the day they transfer to the care home. People who live in care homes should have at least 1 multidisciplinary medication review per year. Ensure you have safe systems for administering and recording medicines. To read the full blog and to find out more about each tip, follow the link below.
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Content ArticleA stronger safety climate in nursing homes may reduce avoidable adverse events. Yet efforts to strengthen safety climate may fail if nursing homes are not ready to change. To inform improvement efforts, Quach et al. examined the link between organisational readiness to change and safety climate. They found that organisational readiness to change predicted safety climate. Safety climate initiatives that address readiness to change among frontline staff and managers may be more likely to succeed and eventually increase resident safety.
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Content Article
This website contains freely available resources for anyone undertaking or working within care homes. These resources were developed by infection prevention control (IPC) experts and supported by Care Home Relatives Scotland and include downloadable guidance on infection control, compassionate and safe care home interactions and leaflets that help reassure and support anyone who is planning spend time with a care home resident.- Posted
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Content ArticleThis article reviews the Missouri Quality Initiative, which aims to reduce hospital admissions among nursing home residents. It involves placing an advanced practice registered nurse within the nursing home, supported by an interdisciplinary team of long-term care specialists, to identify when a resident may be experiencing a functional decline. Results from this initiative showed statistically significant decreases in hospitalisations.
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Content ArticleThe Care Inspectorate’s chief executive Peter Macleod has written to providers of care home services for adults and older people. Peter’s letter outlines key findings from our inspections between April 2020 and March this year. This includes the positive practice and improvements found as well as general areas for improvement identified.
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Content ArticleSafety is a key concern in older adult care homes. However, it is a less developed concept in older adult care homes than in healthcare settings. As part of a study of the collection and application of safety data in the care home sector in England, a scoping review of the international literature was conducted by Rand et al. The findings indicate that there are a range of available safety measures used for quality monitoring and improvement in older adult care homes. These cover all five domains of safety in the Safety Measurement and Monitoring Framework. However, there are potential gaps. These include user experience, psychological harm related to the care home environment, abusive or neglectful care practice and the processes for integrated learning. Some of these gaps may relate to challenges and feasibility of measurement in the care home context.
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Content Article
Inappropriate prescribing during a pandemic: dementia and antipsychotics
Anonymous posted an article in Dementia
Back in February, the team at Patient Safety Learning highlighted how the number of antipsychotic medication prescriptions for people living with dementia had increased in care settings. What’s worrying, is these prescriptions can be administered inappropriately and cause tremendous harm. This is one family's pandemic story. -
Content Article
The Integrator: The discharge debacle (HSJ, 13 January 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Discharge
HSJ’s inboxes are currently heaving with frustration and fury on a rare consistency of theme; the build up of medically fit patients who can’t be discharged from hospitals. Here’s one example from an exasperated, experienced manager, who spoke of “real failure in social care – long stays growing and no capacity to discharge to, a. Homes closed due to infection, b. Homes going out of business c. Homes unable to come and assess patients as no spare staff, d. No care packages as staff sick or none available due to lack of capacity e. social workers and others needed to make assessments in very short supply”. “We keep getting told we’ll cope and get through but we’re really not… The will to continue is beginning to break down with refusals to redeploy and high sickness absence on top of enforced absence due to covid. A seemingly mad commitment to grind through elective stuff… -
Content ArticleThis guidance from the Care Quality Commission is aimed at adult social care services managers and staff. It explains the care needs associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
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Content Article
Visiting restrictions and the impact on patients and their families: a relative's perspective
Anonymous posted an article in By patients and public
The pandemic has shone a stark spotlight on so many inequities and inconsistencies in access to health and social care. Unfortunately, many of these inequities were already there and so, in some respects, its nothing new. In this blog, I want to draw attention to how visiting restrictions can result in worse outcomes for patients and their families. I will focus mainly on the needs of older adults in hospital or care, and those with dementia, because that has been my own experience. But these restrictive practices have affected so many groups: among them, those with mental health conditions and those with learning and behavioural difficulties.
