HIQA highlights fire risk concerns and staffing issues at county Longford nursing home

A report from the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA), on Our Lady's Manor Nursing Home has raised concerns about potential fire risks to residents and staffing issues.

The healthcare watchdog carried out an unannounced inspection on the Edgeworthstown facility and found that it was non-compliant in five key areas out of six.

HIQA stated it failed to meet the expected standards in terms of governance and management, staffing, the premises, fire precautions and infection control on May 16 and 30, 2024.

The critical inspection found that there was "insufficient numbers of nursing staff available during the morning on both days of the inspection to meet the assessed dependencies of residents living in the centre".

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The report outlined inspectors also found that on two separate occasions staff were not available to respond to residents experiencing pain.

There were 51 residents present at the facility on three floors during the visit.

"Available nursing staff were observed by the inspectors to be attending to other residents needs and their response to residents in pain was delayed," the report stated.

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The oversight of cleaning practices, staffing and fire safety required strengthening, according to the report.

The provider had failed to achieve compliance with fire precautions and regulations on previous inspections in 2021,2022 and 2023.

The oversight of fire safety management systems and the processes to identify, and manage fire safety risks were not robust to ensure the safety of residents living in the centre.

"This was evidenced by the significant fire risk identified by the inspectors that resulted in a number of urgent actions being issued to the provider," the document stated.

The report also found the provider had failed to ensure sufficient staffing resources were in place to meet the assessed needs of the residents on the days of inspection.

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"Assurances were not available that there were sufficient staff resources to safely evacuate residents, as this had not been adequately assessed by the provider," the report outlined. "There were five staff on duty at night time to cover three floors."

The assessment found there were four residents who required additional resources to safely evacuate and one of these residents resided on the third floor.

In respect of infection control the inspectors said there was a "continued reliance on the use of dipstick urinalysis for assessing evidence of urinary tract infection", contrary to national guidelines.

The HIQA inspectors also found rooms ready for occupation were not clean with some pillows and mattress covers damaged that could not be cleaned therefore increasing the risk of infection.

"There was inappropriate storage of continence wear on the floor of a toilet that creates a risk of cross-contamination," the report outlined.

"Some equipment for use by residents was observed to be unclean, for example stained urinals and a small number of unclean commodes."

The HIQA report stated the 'individual assessment and care plan' element was deemed to be 'substantially compliant'.

A spokesperson said that meant individual assessments had been completed by nursing staff and every resident had a care plan in place albeit improvements were required in relation to numbers of issues for a small number of residents to fully comply with the regulations.

One such example was that adequate detail was "not contained in a care plan of a resident with a urinary catheter to clearly direct staff on this resident's care needs".