Positive report for Longford based nursing home

A county Longford nursing home has been given the thumbs up by health watchdog officials following an unannounced inspection earlier this year.

Our Lady’s Manor Nursing Home in Edgeworthstown was deemed to be either compliant or substantially compliant in all but one area after Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) visited the premises in April.

Described as being a “well-managed” centre, the facility’s management had, according to Hiqa, addressed “most of the outstanding actions” which had been identified in a previous inspection.
And despite some delays being noted in response to call bells, particularly during periods where residents were most active, the centre came in for noteworthy praise for its staffing, governance and management as well as quality and safety policies.

“The individual rights of the residents were seen to be well-respected and residents were encouraged to make choices regarding their daily lives,” read the report.

“There was a range of activities available to residents to ensure that all residents had access to enough opportunities to participate in activities in accordance with their interests and capacities.”

The one area Hiqa inspectors singled out for required improvement was issues linked to fire precautionary measures.

Inspectors said though “significant improvements” had been made following the last inspection, some areas remained outstanding.

These included the installation of two fire doors in bedrooms on the ground floor, the installation of self-closing devices on doors on the lower ground floor and the reconfiguration of access to a bedroom.

“While fire drills had been completed on a regular basis, they did not provide sufficient assurances that residents could be safely evacuated in a timely manner,” the report added.
Similarly, Hiqa inspectors said a focus needed to be placed on a certain cohort of care plans which the authority found to be “outdated and no longer reflected the residents' needs”.

That said, inspectors hailed the facility for its dedication to the level of health care residents received.
“Residents had good access to general practitioner (GP) services as well as other allied health professionals such as tissue viability nurse, dietitian, occupational therapy, palliative care, speech and language therapy and psychiatry of old age,” the report noted.