An award-winning care organisation is the first in Wales to achieve a ground-breaking “gold standard”.
The Highfield care home, part of the Pendine Park care organisation, is celebrating after receiving official accreditation from the Gold Standards Framework.
The training programme was originally developed in England in primary care for GPs and District Nursing teams.
It has been shown to greatly benefit patients, families and staff by improving the organisation and quality of care provided.
The aim is to promote quality of life for care home residents from the day they arrive to the end of their lives.
In the framework there is a focus on reducing unnecessarily hospital admissions and putting the residents’ needs and preferences at the forefront.
The team at Highfield had to achieve 20 quality standards, from leadership and support to dignity and respect.
Highfield manager Tracey Smith paid tribute to the team’s hard work.
She said: “It’s been a real team effort to bring this about. It’s involved the kitchen, care support, care staff, nurses, everybody. Everyone has worked really hard to make it happen.
“It’s much more than getting the award itself. It’s about changing the culture of the way we look after people from when they come in to us through to when they leave us.
“Working in partnership is very important. We have good relationships with the hospital so we ensure that once that they’ve had any active treatment that they’re sent back as soon as possible.
“If these things aren’t done properly they can cause unnecessary distress for the residents and their families, because this is their home now.
“Most people if they’re in hospital, they want to go home, and it’s just getting that across, so we ensure that the hospitals are aware of what the resident’s preference is with regard to coming back.
“It’s a more efficient use of resources as well. It all helps because it frees up beds in the hospital so it’s a win win really. The hospital get their bed, the resident comes back to people that know them very well.
“If we can look after the resident in the best way here then it’s a waste of resources if they’re taking up the bed of someone else that needs it in the hospital.
Deputy manager has been instrumental in rolling out the Gold Standards Framework across the care home.
She said: “It’s about giving good quality care to people from the time they enter the care home until the end of their life.
“We do advanced care plans for every resident so that we know what their needs, wants, preferences are – just the little things that make it more personal for them and their family as well.
“It’s important to treat people as individuals so we can anticipate their care needs and so we have everything in place for them. It’s about being proactive and anticipating problems before they arise.
“The advanced care plan helps a lot. We use a colour coded system. We have a checklist so that the staff know what needs to be in place and when.
“We also make sure that the plan is communicated to the staff properly so our handover sheets are all colour coded. We have a detailed handover every morning and afternoon, and night time to all staff.
“We have monthly meetings as well, and It’s all updated. We analyse hospital admissions and what the reasons were for them, and if they could have been prevented.
“We look at how long did they stayed in hospital, and what treatment they received to see if there was anything we could do here so we can change our practices and learn from it. We review every patient every month.
“The review process is very important in making sure we’re always improving.
“At the end of someone’s life we try and make it as comfortable and meaningful as possible. We always have somebody sitting with them, whether it’s relatives or family.
“We have little information booklets we give to families that explain the dying process so that they understand what’s happening.
“Having someone with them all of the times means that whenever they become uncomfortable or agitated or in pain, somebody is always there to pick up on that, so then they can inform the nurses so it’s addressed with things like medication and repositioning.
“It’s all about the residents and putting them first.”
Highfield resident Les Llewellyn, 57, certainly approves of the way he’s taken care of at Pendine Park.
He said: “Pendine Park is great – I love it. They keep us busy doing a lot of activities. I go to the art classes, watch films, go to discos, the Halle orchestra come down for workshops, and I’m even learning to speak Welsh.
“The staff are very friendly and are always smiling. They work hard to make sure we’re taken care of.”
