Dothan House

Updated 9 January 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Dothan House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

Our inspection was unannounced and took place on 26 November 2019.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, we reviewed relevant information that we had about the service including any notifications of safeguarding or incidents affecting the safety of people. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We also checked the last inspection report, the provider's action plan and requested feedback from social care professionals.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, the administration manager, five care staff, a chef and a consultant working for the provider. We also spoke with three people living in the home and with two relatives.

We reviewed documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service. We reviewed eight people’s care plans and five staff recruitment files. We also looked at staff training records, quality audits, rotas, complaint and incident records.

After the inspection

We continued to seek further evidence and clarification from the provider, which we have included in the report.

Updated 9 January 2020

About the service

Dothan House is a residential care home providing personal care to older people some of whom may have dementia, mental health needs or physical disabilities. The service can support up to 19 people and at the time of the inspection, 18 people were living in the home.

Dothan House is a purpose built, two floor building. Each floor or unit has separate adapted facilities.

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

The provider had made improvements to the home following our last inspection in October 2018. Premises and equipment safety was maintained to ensure the environment was safe for people. There were suitable evacuation procedures in place in the event of a fire and there was regular maintenance of gas appliances and the lift service. Arrangements for the ordering, storage and administration of medicines was safe. However, we found some recording errors that had yet to be identified, which could put people at risk. We have made a recommendation to ensure medicine records and audits are more robust to identify errors.

There were procedures to protect people from abuse and staff understood how to report abuse. Staff were recruited safely and their backgrounds checked before they started working in the home. Risks associated with people's needs were assessed and staff understood how to reduce these risks. Staff followed infection control procedures to maintain the hygiene and cleanliness of the home. Accidents and incidents that had taken place in the home were reviewed to identify trends and learn lessons to help prevent them re-occurring. Staffing levels in the home were assessed and the home had suitable numbers of staff available at all times to provide support.

Staff were provided with suitable training to ensure their skills and knowledge were up to date. Staff felt supported by the registered manager and received regular supervision and assessments to monitor their performance and discuss any concerns.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were supported with maintaining their health and nutrition. The service worked in collaboration with health care professionals, such as GPs, nurses and speech and language therapists to ensure their health needs were met. People were encouraged to maintain their independence as much as they could.

Staff were respectful and caring towards people. Staff knew how to communicate with people who had difficulty speaking. Staff understood the importance of promoting equality and diversity.

Activities took place in the home and people were encouraged to participate in them if they wished. Staff interacted and engaged with people throughout the day and were not made to feel isolated.

People and their relatives were supported to make complaints about the home. There were quality assurance systems to monitor the safety of the home through audits, checks and obtaining feedback from people and relatives.

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 requires improvement (published 6 December 2018) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.