Archived: Driftwood House

Updated 29 October 2020

The inspection

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

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an assistant inspector.

Service and service type

Driftwood House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

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.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short notice period of the inspection to ensure we could manage any risks associated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We carried out a site visit on 29th September and due to the Covid 19 pandemic carried out the rest of the inspection remotely, reviewing documents and making calls to staff and relatives. We spoke with five people who used the service and three relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the provider, registered manager, senior care workers, care workers and the cook.

We reviewed a range of records. This included seven people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at a range of records relating to the governance and quality of care.

Updated 29 October 2020

About the service

Driftwood House is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 21 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 28 people. The accommodation is located over two floors with communal living room and dining room on the ground floor.

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

Systems and processes to manage the quality of care were not always robust. Risk assessments sometimes lacked detail on action to take to manage risks and audits did not always include detail about which records had been checked. We found some equipment in use that had not been removed from service due to damage. The manager took immediate action to remedy this. However, this damage and potential risks to people had not been identified by the service’s own monitoring processes.

There was a very warm and welcoming environment in the home, staff knew people well and understood their needs. People, their relatives and staff were very positive about the manager and described the home as being ‘like a family.’

People told us they felt safe living at the service. People received their medicines as they were prescribed. The service was clean and had infection prevention and control measures in place to manage risks associate with Covid 19.

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

Rating at last inspection (and update)

The last rating for this service was Requires Improvement (published 25 March 2019) and there was a breach of Regulation 12 (Safe Care and Treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. However, we found there needed to be improvements made to some of the checks on the quality of care and the provider was in breach of Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of risk and the management of medicines. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

The overall rating for the service has remained the same. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can see what further 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 Driftwood House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will continue to monitor the progress made to improve. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.