Care homes, regardless of the type, share the same goal, and it is to provide the best possible care to its residents. However, the rigorous daily routine can sometimes take a toll on the care workers’ patience and perseverance and they forget to look at the ‘big picture.’ As a care home manager, you have to ensure that the support team works efficiently and residents get quality care. Over here we discuss some common mistakes that care homes make –
Not looking at future problems while making care plans
Sure, having a proper care plan is a must in any care home. However, there are always uncertainties when it comes to residents’ health and medication management. For example, a resident’s health may degrade after following a particular treatment and the doctor may have to alter diet plans and medication regularly. In such a case, a fixed care plan won’t work. The care plan followed in such cases should be designed in a way that helps care workers easily cope with the unexpected changes.
Not implementing multiple cross-checking routine to ensure medication safety
From choosing the right medication for the right patient to ensuring the right dosage route and documenting the whole process, there’s a lot involved when it comes to administering medication.
As care workers have to administer medicines to residents multiple times in a day, the monotony and tediousness can result in human errors which can adversely affect the health of residents. Hence, it’s a good practice to regularly check MAR sheets to ensure safe medication administration in your care home.
However, multiple cross-checking is not feasible for most of the care homes due to resource and time constraints. To deal with this situation, care home managers can implement electronic MAR, electronic MAR charts, in care homes. It automates medication administration and lowers the risk of human errors. Learn how care homes in the UK are using electronic MAR at https://www.electronicmar.co.uk/emar/.
Poor communication
Constant interactions happen between the staff, residents, and management in a care home. Lack of proper communication between the staff and residents, or the staff and the management, can lead to loopholes in the caring processes that can lower the care quality.
One of the recommendations to improve communication is to conduct communication training sessions for the staff; this can be done once or twice in a month. Also, it helps to make sure that the care workers are able to collaborate with each other to increase transparency in data-sharing.