Archived: River Court Care Home

Updated 20 May 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2014 and to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This visit took place on 15 March 2016 and was carried out by two inspectors and an expert by experience. The visit was unannounced. Before our inspection we reviewed information we held about the service including statutory notifications relating to the service. Statutory notifications include information about important events which the provider is required to send us.

During the inspection we spoke with 21 people who lived at the service, 9 relatives, 12 members of staff, the relief manager and the regional manager. We received feedback from social care professionals. We viewed eight people’s support plans.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us due to complex health needs.

Updated 20 May 2016

River Court is a purpose built nursing and residential care home. The home is located on the outskirts of Watford Town Centre. It has the capacity for up to 120 elderly or frail residents, some of whom live with dementia and it also provides nursing care/palliative care.

There were 116 people living at the service on the day of our inspection. River Court consists of four units, Hampermill, Gade, Chess and Colne. We did not visit one of the units due to an outbreak of infection of which 10 people had been affected.

The service has a registered manager in post although they were not present on the day of this visit. They were registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated Regulations about how the service is run. However, a relief manager provided the management support and guidance on the day of our visit.

We last carried out an inspection of the service on 18 October 2013 due to concerns raised regarding the administration of medicines. At this inspection we found the service was meeting this standard. The last scheduled inspection carried out at this service was 24 May 2013 where the service was found to be meeting the required standards.

At this inspection we found some areas of the environment were poorly maintained and found to be dirty. This included soiled armchairs and a strong smell of urine in one of the units where people lived.

People told us they felt safe and secure living at River Court. Generally we found staff were knowledgeable in recognising signs of potential abuse and knew how to report concerns both within the organisation and externally if required.

Assessments were undertaken to identify any risks to people who received a service and to the staff who supported them. There were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people’s individual support and care needs at all times, including during the night and at weekends. People received appropriate support from staff to enable them to take their medicines.

People and their relatives felt confident to raise any concerns and told us they were confident any concerns would be resolved without delay. People received their care and support from a staff team that fully understood people’s health and care needs and who had the skills and experience to meet them.

We found that people who used the service were not always treated with dignity and respect but their privacy was maintained.

The activities programme provided did not always reflect the individual needs of people who used the service and could benefit from being improved.

Safe and effective recruitment practices were followed to make sure that all staff were of good character, and were suitable to work in a care home environment as well as being fit for the roles they were being employed to carry out. Staff records confirmed checks had been made which ensured they were safe to work with vulnerable adults before a position was offered to them.

Staff were well supported by the management team and received an induction from senior staff when they first started working at the home. They received on going training and support to enable them to perform their roles effectively. Staff had regular individual supervision meetings, team meeting and had an annual appraisal to review their development and performance.

People were supported to maintain good health and had access to health and social care professionals when necessary. They were provided with a healthy balanced diet that met their individual needs.

People’s views about the service were gathered using surveys and verbal feedback. Feedback was used in a positive way to improve the quality of the overall service. The majority of people we spoke to were positive and complimentary about all aspects of the service.

Relatives, staff and professional stakeholders were complimentary about the staff and how the home was run and operated. The monitoring the quality of services provided, reduce potential risks and drive improvement could be further improved to ensure all aspects of the service which require attention are indentified at the earliest possible stage.