Medication errors refer to mistakes that occur when medications are prescribed, dispensed or administered incorrectly. If you run or work in a care home or nursing home you will probably already be aware of how damaging medication errors can be and want to learn more about how to prevent them.
Medication errors lead to hundreds of thousands of people suffering adverse consequences each year, ranging from reduced well-being or injury, to serious health complications and even death.
Due to this, it’s crucial that people operating and working within care homes and nursing homes are familiar with a variety of strategies to reduce or prevent the likelihood of medication errors in care homes.
With the right approach, medication errors are avoidable. This guide is here to help you understand what medication errors are and how to prevent them.
While every single incident that happens in care does not to be reported to the CQC (Care Quality Commission), many providers are surprised to learn just how many do need to be, and the types of incidents that qualify for reporting.
All providers must send notifications directly to the CQC, excluding those that are local authorities, providers of primary medical services, or health service bodies. So if you operate a care home or domiciliary care business you must directly report incidents to CQC.
The reporting of incidents is covered by CQC Regulation 18: Notification of other incidents. CQC can prosecute for a breach of Regulation 18 or part of it.
This means CQC can move directly to prosecution without serving a notice first, although they may take other regulatory action first depending on the severity of the breach.
Therefore, it’s very important for care providers to know which incidents they have to report to CQC, the section below gives you the information you need.
If you want to know how to open a care home in the UK, we have all of the information that you need to get started. With the right planning, knowledge and preparation, opening a care home can be a rewarding and fulfilling adventure. As the population ages and the demand for quality care increases, the care home sector is consistently growing. However, it’s important to understand that opening a care home is a significant responsibility that will require careful planning, adherence to regulations and a commitment to providing quality care.
The Access Group has been working closely with various care services for over 30 years. We have helped these businesses adapt to digital systems so they can save time, money and remain compliant while improving the lives of their staff and service users. Through this, we’ve seen lots of people start a care home business and have gained an understanding of what it takes to be successful.
To give you a better understanding of how to start a care home business in the UK, we have put together this complete guide which covers the key information on how to open a residential care home including software, certifications, qualifications, a care home business plan and more, so you can feel comfortable on your next business venture.
CQC Registration - Do You Need It?
Essentially, every provider of social care in England has to be registered with the CQC (Care Quality Commission) some niche activities are excluded from registration, for the full details see Schedule 1 of The Care Act 2014, under 'Regulated Activities'.
Anybody who provides a Regulated Activity without being registered is breaking the law. Courts can issue prison sentences depending on the severity of the offending. This is rare however, and hefty fines are more common, ranging from a few thousand pounds (as in this case) up to tends of thousands of pounds (as in this case). Therefore, if you want to provide a Regulated Activity, covering the overwhelming majority of care services, then you need to be CQC registered. So lets explain how you do that.
A care plan for dementia is essential when caring for someone with dementia. It ensures everyone involved in providing care has a clear understanding of that person’s needs, goals, preferences and challenges in order to support them in a way that is safe and improves their quality of life. Daily routines will benefit both you (the caregiver) and the people you’re caring for. A planned day will allow you to spend less time trying to figure out what to do and more time on fun activities that provide pleasure, meaning and enjoyment.
We at The Access Group have over 30 years of experience working with care services across the world. Our digital software has been designed to help improve the quality of care and simplify processes while saving you time and hassle. To help ensure you are giving the people in your care with dementia the best experience, we have put together this dementia care plan article so you can learn how to provide person-centred care.
Care home audits are part of the quality assurance and improvement cycle operated by all care providers. They involve a review of the efficiency and success of local and regulated safe systems of work and practice against the proven and agreed standards for high-quality care. Care home compliance audits include taking action to ensure practice aligns with these standards to improve experience, environment, outcomes, and quality of care for service users and their carers.
All care homes use care audits (also referred to as clinical audits) to conduct checks in different areas of care. These include internal quality audits (as well as observations of practice), infection control audits, health and safety standards, mealtime, and kitchen audits and much more. As well as highlighting the good, care audits will uncover the areas that need improvement so care services can get better.
We at The Access Group have worked closely with various care services for over 30 years to help them convert to a digital way of life, including using digital care home audit tools. If you want to better understand care home audits, their benefits and how to use them properly, we have put together this guide to help steer you in the right direction.
Caring for people with dementia isn’t easy. Whether it’s offering information, support and practical guidance to the person with dementia and their loved ones, or taking part in the relevant dementia training alongside maintaining and meeting the standards set by your care service, each day is different and every task comes with its own difficulties.
At The Access Group, we have been digitising various national and international businesses for over 30 years. Whether you run an independent care service or you work for a company that provides care across the country, no task is too big or too small and we have the tools to help you succeed at work.
While our main aim is to improve the lives of service providers and service users, we also want to help friends and family who may be struggling with the diagnosis of their loved ones. If you’re providing home care to dementia patients or they reside at your care service, here are some tips on how to provide care for people with dementia including 7 common mistakes and how to avoid them.
What is a Provider Information Return (PIR)?
CQC PIR (Provider Information Return) forms are intrinsically linked to Key Lines of Enquiries (KLOEs) and are designed to assist inspectors to gather useful information about an adult social care provider before an inspection takes place.
Before we start exploring the CQC PIR, if you are not aware, the CQC has revamped and introduced fundamental changes to inspections of services across health and social care. As part of this they have replaced the Key Lines of Enquiry and made a host of other important changes you should be aware of.
Read our article on the new CQC Single Assessment Framework and for a more detailed look you should also download these free guides on the CQC's:
and
Despite these changes, the CQC's five key questions remain, and the content requested as part of a PIR includes key data, as well as some information in response to those five key questions around your service's:
- Safety
- Effectiveness
- Level of care
- Responsiveness
- Well-led approach
This pre-inspection questionnaire is sent to providers to help the Care Quality Commission (CQC) determine which areas the inspectors will focus on during their visit.
Care home fire safety is vital to resident and staff safety. Majority if not all residents will have vulnerabilities of some kind. Having a detailed and effective fire safety plan is crucial to ensure everyone can evacuate safely.
Establishing effective and sufficient fire safety evacuation plans in care homes however, is a lot more complex than in typical working environments. It can be devastating when things go wrong and can lead to serious consequences if they are not implemented correctly. Unlimited Fines and up to 2 years imprisonment can be issued if you do not follow fire safety regulations and provide adequate training.
Those involved with the fire safety of care homes have the responsibility to keep the building, the staff, and their residents safe. In 2011 BBC London revealed how dozens of care homes were ordered to improve after failing to achieve even basic fire safety standards.
Here is a guide answering all questions surrounding the fire safety of care homes, its importance, and how to develop a sufficient fire safety evacuation plan to keep everyone safe so even if a fire does occur it does not cause devastating impacts onto your care business.
How to make a care home outstanding – why you should care
If your first question is what do the CQC do? They are the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of health and care services in England.
The CQC award overall ratings to care homes, ranging from Outstanding (being the very best), followed by ‘Good;, ‘Requires Improvement’ and lastly ‘Inadequate’.
An Outstanding rating is coveted by all care home operators and understandably so. Only 3.5% of care homes are ‘outstanding’. Having an outstanding rating can boost your ability to attract more residents, either from loved ones or council commissioners feeling more confident in your abilities.
It can also give you positive PR, which in turn can boost intake of residents. You will see many care homes being featured in local press and trade media when they receive an outstanding rating. Any press a care home gets when it is rated inadequate is unlikely to have been sought or welcomed by the care home itself!
Finally, an outstanding rating can boost staff morale and confidence, on a day-to-day basis and when the next inspection comes around. It can even boost recruitment and certainly boost the confidence and profile of the care home’s registered manager.
