There are several reasons accidents or injuries in care homes happen and if it is found that the care home was negligent in anyway, your care home could be faced with a personal injury claim.
Care home staff members can sustain injuries in a variety of ways, including:
- Moving and assisting patients from beds and seats.
- Assisting patients out of toilets and showers.
- Personal attacks from aggressive patients or family members.
- Tripping and falling downstairs or over obstructions.
As an employer, you are required by law to ensure that your employees have been given training for the safe use of work equipment and safety procedures. You must warn your staff of risks and precautions that can be taken to minimise risk of injury.
Common accidents suffered by residents
Common accidents and incidents suffered by residents could include:
- Slips, trips and falls.
- Accidents arising from lack of mobility aids.
- Improper handling out of bed and from the toilet.
- Prescription and medication errors.
- Pressure sores and ulcers.
There are many other factors that can be a risk to vulnerable patients in care and social care settings. All staff should be well trained in risk assessment and know how to prevent accidents.
What are the obligations following a serious injury?
Regulation 18: Notification of other incidents – Providers must notify CQC of all incidents that affect the health, safety and welfare of people who use the services. The full list of incidents is in the text of the regulation.
All providers must send their notifications directly to CQC, unless the provider is a health service body, local authority or provider of primary medical services and it has previously notified the NHS Commissioning Board Authority (now known as NHS England).
CQC can prosecute for a breach of this regulation or a breach of part of the regulation. This means that CQC can move directly to prosecution without first serving a warning notice. Additionally, CQC may also take any other regulatory action. See the offences section for more detail.
Protecting your business with Care Home Audit Visits and Mock Inspections
Undertaking an audit, or a full programme of audits, is good business practice. It will pick up on anything that your manager has missed. If you audit properly, it demonstrates that you are adhering to best practices and you avoid all possibility of a bad CQC inspection.
Our audits:
- Mini Mock Inspection
- Care plans audit
- Medications audit
- HR audit
- Personnel and staff file audit
- Staff rota audit
- Staff training audit
- CQC Inspection Readiness(full care home health check)
To ensure that your care home is prepared for any eventuality, book a free 15-minute 121 with us to get expert advice on how you can ensure you are meeting compliance and regulation expectations.