Fountains Lodge Care Home

Updated 16 July 2019

The inspection:

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

We visited the service on 19 June 2019 and 20 June 2019.

Inspection team:

The inspection was completed by an inspector, a specialist professional advisor and an expert by experience. The specialist professional advisor was a nurse. An expert by experience is someone who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Service and service type:

Fountains Lodge Care Home is a care home that provides accommodation, nursing and personal care for 74 older people and younger adults who have physical adaptive needs or who live with dementia. It can also accommodate people who have sensory adaptive needs.

People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

We used information the registered persons sent us in their Provider Information Return. This is information we require registered persons to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed other information we held about the service. This included notifications of incidents that the registered persons had sent us since our last inspection in March 2018. These are events that happened in the service that the registered persons are required to tell us about.

We invited feedback from the commissioning bodies who contributed to purchasing some of the care provided by the service. We did this so that they could tell us their views about how well the service was meeting people's needs and wishes. This information helps support our inspections.

We spoke with 21 people living in the service using sign-assisted language when necessary. We also spoke with six relatives.

We spoke with five care staff, a senior member of care staff, a unit manager, two nurses, two housekeepers and two activities coordinators.

We also spoke with the maintenance manager and the finance administrator. In addition, we met with the registered manager and the regional director. The regional director was a nurse. The registered manager reported to the regional director.

We reviewed documents and records that described how care had been planned, delivered and evaluated for 10 people.

We examined documents and records relating to how the service was run including health and safety, the management of medicines and staff training and recruitment. We also looked at documents relating to learning lessons when things had gone wrong, obtaining consent and the management of complaints.

We reviewed the systems and processes used by the registered persons to assess, monitor and evaluate the service.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who cannot talk with us.

After the inspection visit we spoke by telephone with a further four relatives.

Updated 16 July 2019

About the service:

Fountains Lodge Care Home is a residential care home with nursing for 74 older people and younger adults who have physical adaptive needs or who live with dementia. It can also accommodate people who have sensory adaptive needs.

At the time of this inspection there were 65 people were living in the service.

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

People's experience of using the service:

People and their relatives were positive about the service. A person said, “I’m quite settled here now. I have my own room and the staff are fine with me.” Another person said, “I’ve no complaints as this place has lived up to what I expected.” A relative said, "I’m very happy knowing my family member lives In Fountains Lodge because quite simply she couldn’t get better and we’re lucky to have such a good service so local to us.”

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse.

People received safe care and treatment in line with national guidance from nurses and care staff who had the knowledge and skills they needed.

There were enough nurses and care staff on duty and safe recruitment practices were in place.

People were supported to use medicines safely.

Lessons had been learned when things had gone wrong.

Good standards of hygiene were maintained to prevent and control the risk of infection.

People had been helped to receive medical attention when necessary.

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.

The accommodation was well maintained and provided people with a comfortable setting in which to receive care.

Nurses and care staff were courteous and polite.

People’s privacy was respected and confidential information was handled in the right way.

People received person-centred care including having information presented to them in an accessible way.

People were supported to pursue their hobbies and interests.

There were robust arrangements to manage complaints.

People were treated with compassion at the end of their lives so they had a pain-free death.

Quality checks were completed to ensure the service was running in the right way.

People had been consulted about the development of the service.

Good team work was promoted and regulatory requirements had been met.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit in line with our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.