Archived: Meadowbrook Care Home

Updated 13 April 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 28 February 2017 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of three inspectors and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

We used the information we held about the service to formulate our inspection plan. This included information relating to the last inspection of the service which took place on 4 and 15 December 2017.

We also reviewed other information we held about the service. This included statutory notifications that the provider had sent to us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. These include information about safeguarding concerns, serious injuries and deaths that had occurred at the service. We also considered feedback received from the local authority commissioners and the local Healthwatch.

We spoke with six people who used the service and six relatives. We did this to gain people's views about the care and to check that standards of care were being met.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. We spoke with this person as part of the inspection.

We also spoke with two senior managers, a unit manager, a nurse, two senior care staff and three support staff. We observed how care staff interacted with people in communal areas and looked at four people’s care records.

We also looked at records relating to the management of the service. These included three staff files, training records and quality assurance records.

Updated 13 April 2019

About the service: Meadowbrook is a ‘care home’ registered to accommodate up to 69 people. At the time of this inspection the service was providing personal and nursing care to 44 older people.

People's experience of using this service:

•Overall people were satisfied with the quality of the service provided and people, visitors and staff all spoke of improvements that had taken place over recent months.

•The quality of the food remained an area where people expressed mixed views and the registered manager was working with the catering company to address issues.

•Staffing levels were under review. Overall people were confident that there were enough staff to meet their needs however some issues in relation to the allocation of staff were shared. The registered manager was actively reviewing staffing levels and liaising with people, relatives and staff to share progress.

•Risks to people were monitored and procedures were in place to help keep people safe.

•People received their medicines as and when they needed them.

•People were protected from the risks associated with the control and spread of infection.

•Staff understood the importance of ensuring people's rights were understood and protected.

•People's health care needs were monitored and understood by staff.

•People told us staff understood their needs and were kind, caring and compassionate.

•People had opportunities for social stimulation and more would be welcomed.

•People were confident that complaints would be addressed.

•Quality checks and audits enabled the provider to ensure improvements were being made within the service.

Rating at last inspection: The service was rated Requires Improvement at the last inspection in December 2017.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk