Archived: Oak Tree Lodge

Below is a summary of what we found. The summary is based on our observations during the inspection, speaking with people who used the service, the staff supporting them and from looking at records.

Is the service safe?

During our inspection we looked at several areas of the home, including bathrooms, some people's bedrooms, lounges, dining rooms, the laundry and the sluice. Generally we found the home to be clean and with no malodours. We did see some areas requiring attention which we pointed out to staff.

We looked at the care plans of two people who had recently fallen. In one person's file we could see a referral had been made to the 'falls team' in April 2014. The response from the 'falls team' indicated a referral should be made to another service and for the person's G.P. to arrange an occupational therapist assessment. The record stated the G.P. visit had been arranged. We could not find evidence in the person's care plan or in the home's G.P. records that this had happened. There was no evidence the GP had visited. Another person had recently had a fall and we saw the injuries to the person. We could not see that any medical attention had been sought at the time.

Is the service caring?

There were various activities going on around the home, on one floor we saw a person playing the organ and people who used the service were singing and dancing with staff, people really did seem to be enjoying this, it was a happy atmosphere.

We spoke with 11 people who used the service and some of their relatives. Everyone we spoke with said staff treated them kindly and would do anything for them. One person said, “Staff really care for me and I am well settled in.”

Is the service responsive?

We saw there was information for staff to follow with regard to people's conditions and what to look out for should they become unwell. For example we saw one person had been diagnosed with a heart condition and we saw there was a detailed explanation of what symptoms the person may display.

We saw the complaints log and there had been two complaints since our last inspection. We were able to see the detail of the complaint, how it had been investigated and a summary of the feedback to the complainant. We spoke with a relative of a person who used the service who had made a complaint about changes to staffing. The person told us they were not happy with the response, which we fed back to the manager. We saw the complaint policy was displayed in the reception area of Oak Tree Lodge.

Is the service effective?

People's health and care needs were assessed where possible with them or their relative. Specialist dietary, mobility and equipment needs had been identified in care plans where required.

Is the service well led?

We saw several audits had taken place including, infection control, medication, weight monitoring, catering, bed rail usage and care profile audits. In the policies and procedures it stated there should be an 'external review of compliance', this had been completed in May 2014 and we saw a copy of the report.

Staff we spoke with told us there had been regular staff meetings. They said if information needed to be provided urgently it would be given to staff during the change of staff handover meeting.

Infection control procedures were in place. We asked the manager if there was an infection control lead and she told us she didn’t know. The staff we spoke with confirmed there was no infection control lead.

The people we spoke with said the environment was clean and in good repair. We looked at some of the communal areas of the home, bathrooms, some people's bedrooms and the laundry area. We found all the areas to be clean and satisfactorily maintained.

People’s personal records including records relating to falls were not always kept up to date. We identified a number of concerns with the accuracy and completeness of records in the home.

We saw that falls incidents had not been analysed for themes and trends or risk assessed in January 2014. We asked to see previous analyses of falls for November and December 2013 but these were not available during inspection.

We saw evidence that records were not kept securely and could not be located promptly when needed. We identified a number of concerns with the safe storage of records in the home.

Infection control had been undertaken but processes were not robust enough and left gaps which created risks for the people who used this service from health care associated infection.

Records were not effectively maintained to ensure the safety of the people living at the home or the safe running of the service.