Archived: Hospice at Home

Hospice at Home is a domiciliary care agency providing palliative, end of life care and specialist care. The service supports people in their wish to be cared for at home, facilitates rapid discharge from hospital and provides a One Call response service to avoid unwanted hospital admissions. At the time of our inspection there were 30 people using the service.

CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Where risk assessments had been completed, updated or reviewed for people on the services electronic system which the nursing staff had access to, this information had not always been transferred into people's paper based care plans. This meant information was not always in place or up to date for the health care assistants to follow.

We have made a recommendation about the management of risk assessments and care planning to ensure updated information is accessible to all staff and reflects the current needs of people.

People told us they received safe care from staff who knew them. There was a safeguarding policy in place and the registered manager, and staff knew how to identify and report concerns. The service had enough staff to meet the needs of people using the service. Staff had been safely recruited and pre-employment checks carried out. The service had a rapid response team to enable them to respond quickly to a decline in people’s health.

Staff had received an induction and training to enable them to meet people’s needs. Staff had received training in medicine administration. Supervisions, spot checks and competency assessments for staff were carried out and the majority of staff told us they felt supported by the senior team.

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 supported this practice.

Staff had access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and there were effective infection control measures in place. People’s nutritional needs were met where required.

The registered manager and senior management team sought support and worked collaboratively with St Luke’s Hospice and other health and social care professionals when needed. The majority of people, relatives and staff we spoke to spoke positively about the leadership of the service. There were systems in place to monitor, maintain and improve the quality of the service.

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 the service at the previous premises was outstanding, published on 20 August 2019.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hospice at Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.