Moor House Residential Care Home

Moor House Residential Care Home is a residential care home registered to provide personal care for up to 25 people. The service provides support to people requiring residential care and people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection, there were 21 people living at Moor House Residential Care Home, some of whom were living with dementia.

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

We found audit processes relating to medicines needed further improvement. Topical medication (medicines applied to the skin) administration records had not always been completed fully and deliveries of new stock were not always checked by a second member of staff. Whilst there had been no impact on people and stock balances indicated medicines were accounted for, the provider’s systems did not always address these record-keeping shortfalls consistently. The registered manager addressed this immediately.

There were sufficient staff deployed to support people with their needs. Where people’s needs had changed, the provider had reviewed this and deployed an extra member of staff. People told us they had experienced occasions when they had to wait for staff to attend to their needs. The provider had already identified this and deployed an additional member of staff.

People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring towards them and they felt safe living at Moor House Residential Care Home.

People told us they had access to healthcare professionals when they needed this. Feedback from healthcare professionals and care records we reviewed confirmed this.

Staff were aware of risks related to people’s care and how to support people appropriately. Staff knew how to whistle blow and raise concerns inside and externally of the organisation should they need to.

There were plans in place in the event of an emergency evacuation. Staff had completed individual personal emergency evacuation plans for people.

We were assured the service were following safe infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe.

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.

People and their relatives told us they knew how to complain and that the registered manager would listen to their concerns. They told us they were given the opportunity to feed back on the service and attend meetings.

People, their relatives and staff told us there was generally a positive atmosphere at the service which engaged them. They told us that the service was managed effectively and spoke positively of the registered manager.

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 this service was good (published 27 June 2022).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about staff management of people’s risks in relation to falls and the culture in the service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We did not find evidence of the concerns we received prior to the inspection in relation to risk management but we identified areas of improvement in relation to the monitoring systems that the provider had in place. Please see the well-led section of this report.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Moor House Residential Care 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.

Moor House Residential Care Home is a service providing personal care without nursing for up to 24 people across two floors. The service provides support to older people, some of whom were living with dementia. At the time of our inspection, there were 18 people using the service.

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

People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring towards them and that they felt safe living at the service. There were sufficient staff to support people. Staff were aware of risks related to people’s care and how to support people whilst they respected their wishes. People received their medicines on time and medicines were stored safely. Staff knew how to whistle blow and raise concerns should they need to.

We were assured the service were following safe infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe.

Care records were person-centred and included information on risks associated with people’s care. Risk assessments were undertaken which provided staff with instructions on how to reduce risks.

Safety checks of the premises and fire equipment were undertaken and there were plans in place in the event of an emergency evacuation.

People told us they had access to healthcare professionals and care records we reviewed confirmed this. Staff had received regular training and supervisions in order to perform their roles. Staff were supported in their progression and supervisions gave them the opportunity to request support from their line manager.

People were provided with a range of activities which included group activities and some one-to-one activities. Staff had considered the risk of social isolation and people confirmed that there were regular welfare checks where they had consented to these.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of care provided. People and their relatives told us they knew how to complain and that the registered manager would listen to their concerns. They told us that they were given the opportunity to feed back on the service.

People, their relatives and staff told us that there was a positive culture at the service which actively engaged them. They told us that the service is managed effectively and were complimentary about the registered manager.

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.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 6 November 2019 and this is the first full inspection. We previously inspected the service using our targeted infection prevention and control inspection approach, but we did not provide a rating as we did not inspect all areas of the service. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 7 October 2017.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and based on the date it first registered with the Care Quality Commission.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

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

We found the following examples of good practice.

Staff and people using the service were participating in regular testing for COVID-19. This was done through a combination of both rapid tests that returned results at the home and tests that were sent away for analysis. Visitors were required to complete a rapid test prior to entering the building.

The provider had plans in place in the event of an outbreak including portable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stations that could be stocked with a hand sanitiser dispenser and space for other PPE.

The provider had created a designated room separating visitors with a clear screen and a microphone system for people to have regular contact with their relatives. Visitors were able to access the visiting room via the garden and did not need to enter residential areas of the care home. There was a booking system in place and people were able to see their relatives whilst the risk of COVID-19 transmission into the home was reduced.

The provider had considered the impact of new admissions to the service and had systems in place to ensure people were admitted to the service safely. We observed staff following current guidelines relating to the isolation period and entering and leaving the room of a person who was newly admitted.