Case Study
Ensuring IPC standards in your care home during a health crisis
The challenges of the pandemic were especially hard for the care sector, forcing an unprecedented number of issues for care homes across the UK.
This meant that some care home providers needed an experienced care consultant to ensure the proper belts and braces were in place to manage Infection Prevention and Control.
What issue did the care home have?
Infection Prevention Control (IPC) is a key focus for any care home in ensuring the safety of both their staff and often vulnerable residents. With the sudden challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, this became even more important to stop the virus from spreading. Fulcrum Care was approached by a group that owns multiple care homes to ensure their IPC protocols were up to Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulatory standards, and ensure their staff and care home management team knew how to maintain a good quality of care before their next audit.
…our experienced care consultants created an action plan of recommendations that care homes could implement to best protect their residents and staff.
How did Fulcrum Care help?
Before visiting the care home group, our experienced care consultants created an action plan of recommendations that care homes could implement to best protect their residents and staff. This included proactive measures, protocols and practices that staff could use in their daily routine, and how to manage visitations from outside people and residents’ family members to help avoid any contamination. Once this had been presented, Fulcrum Care consultants visited the care homes to carry out IPC checks and a mock CQC inspection. This helped to highlight any issues in their current systems, and areas where improvement may be needed to meet the CQC Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs).
What were the results for the care home?
Having a third-party, independent review of their IPC checks was beneficial for the care home group, as it gave the CQC reassurance that they were compliant with regulatory standards from a qualified source and helped them to keep a rating of ‘Good’ across the care homes they managed. The mock audit inspections were also instrumental in helping the care homes revise and manage their approach to the challenges of the pandemic, putting the correct processes and training in place to continue providing their residents with a safe and trusted environment. When carrying out a mock inspection, we always strive to teach care home management teams the key focuses that the CQC look for, so they can continue assessing their own teams sustainably and always provide an excellent quality of care for their residents.
If you’re a care home owner, provider or manager who would like expert advice on how we can help support your care home, then book a free 15-minute 121 with us.