Inspectors have raised their ratings of a Perth care home after finding staff have made a number of improvements since their last assessment.
The Care Inspectorate decided managers of Kincairney House had to meet four requirements for improvements following a visit on July 24 and 25 this year.
The body judged standards of support of people’s wellbeing and leadership of the workforce to be “weak” at that time and asked for improvements to be made by September 12.
Now a lone inspector has regraded the above standards as “adequate” after finding concerns previously raised about the monitoring of people’s care and support, the monitoring of staff and a lack of communication between staff and residents have been addressed during a follow-up visit earlier this month.
The Care Inspectorate’s latest report on Kincairney House said: “Since the previous inspection the service [has] fully assessed the health and wellbeing of all people.
“Now only people with identified clinical needs have monitoring charts in place relevant to their healthcare needs.
“The manager and quality assurance manager have spent time with staff discussing their role and what is expected of them. Routine monitoring of staff practice is now in place to ensure they are meeting the needs of the people they care for.
“Feedback from families and visiting professionals was very positive and included; ‘my parent is very well looked after’, ‘I have no worries as the staff know what they are doing and do a really good job’, ‘the staff have been keen to learn and implement into their practice everything we teach them’.
“We will continue to monitor this at future inspections.”
Turning to evaluate the current standard of leadership at the home the report continued: “Communication with people has improved since the previous inspection.
“The service [has] introduced forum meetings for people living in the home, their relatives and staff.
“The manager also routinely speaks with people and seeks their feedback on the home and discusses any developments that may be planned.
“Feedback was the newsletter provided lots of information and that at home level people were well informed, felt comfortable and confident speaking with the manager.
“However, a number of people spoken with commented that senior management still didn’t listen and weren’t interested, they felt there was no point bringing things up as nothing would change.
“Comments included; ‘the problem is senior management not the home manager’ and ‘we just wish senior management would let the home manager get on with things’.
“It is hoped that the home management team will continue to strive to gain the confidence and trust of those living in the home, their relatives and the staff team to take forward and imbed the improved communication that has commenced.
“It’s important that senior management listen to what people say and be part of developing more meaningful, open communication.
“We will continue to monitor this at future inspections.”
