About the service Meadow View Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 53 people. The service provides support to younger and older adults and people living with dementia, or a physical disability. At the time of our inspection there were 42 people living at the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Some people reported issues with uncertainty about their care, due to being discharged to the service for assessment from hospital. People expressed their frustration at delays to their longer term care arrangements.
The provider and regional director were open and transparent throughout the inspection. They told us their focus had been on recruiting a new manager to the service. We found the lack of oversight and governance had led to our inspection identifying areas for improvement.
Improvements were required to the provider's systems and processes to assess and monitor the safety and quality of people's care as they had not identified the issues we found during the inspection.
Staff had not always followed the procedure for the administration of medicines or the monitoring of safe medicine management. People did not always live in an environment with safe infection and prevention measures.
People and their family members told us they felt safe at Meadow View Care Home, as staff were available to help them when required. People were supported by staff who had undergone a safe recruitment process.
People's health and wellbeing needs were assessed, and their health and welfare monitored by staff. Staff liaised with health care professionals about people's care. People's dietary needs were met and people were assisted by staff where required to eat and drink. Snacks and drinks were served throughout the day. A plan for ongoing improvements to the mealtimes was in place.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service mostly supported this practice, however inspectors identified improvements were needed for one person at the service.
People and family members were generally complimentary about the staff and care their relatives received. The provider sought feedback from family members about the quality of the service.
The provider had identified areas for improvement, which included the performance management of staff, recruitment, care records and housekeeping.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 7 July 2022).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted due to concerns received about the management of the service and safeguarding concerns in relation to wound care. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report. During the inspection the provider worked with the local authority and the local integrated commissioning board (ICB) to reduce the risks at the service, however improvements were still needed.
We received concerns in relation to the management of the service, recruitment and people’s nursing care needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Meadow View Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to safety and oversight of the service at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.