Glowing report for Muirfield Nursing Home after inspection

An unannounced inspection carried out by the Care Inspectorate took place at Muirfield Nursing Home last month.

The Gullane nursing home, which is managed by Randolph Hill Nursing Homes (Scotland) Ltd, was rated as ‘very good’ across all five categories.

Peter McCormick, Randolph Hill Group managing director, said "We strive to maintain the highest possible care standards for our residents and their families.

"This ranges from ensuring the space available to our residents is well-designed and fit for purpose, to getting to know our residents so that we can support their wellbeing, from the conversations we have, to the activities scheduled, as well as ensuring our resident’s relatives are communicated with regularly.

"Our latest Care Inspectorate report is testament to exceptional quality of care carried out by our wonderful team who go above and beyond for our residents each and every day.

"We thank them for their hard work in helping to achieve this positive recognition.”

During the evaluation, inspectors spoke to staff, people at the nursing home and their relatives, as well as observing daily life.

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The report states: “People were very satisfied with the quality of the care and support received.

“Staff interacted warmly and respectfully with people.

“Mealtimes were well staffed and decent-quality meals were available for people.

“The environment was clean, tidy and homely.

“Managers were accessible and responsive to people experiencing care, relatives and staff.

“Staff were well supported and supervised.

"People's personal plans were thorough and up to date.

“As part of this inspection, we assessed the service's self-evaluation of key areas. We found that the service had an effective and well completed self-evaluation that was reflective of our findings.”

The report is broken down into five different sections – How well do we support people’s wellbeing? How good is our leadership? How good is our staff team? How good is our setting? And how well is our care and support planned?

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Each was ranked as '5 – very good', the second-highest grade available.

Under the first heading, it was found that there were “significant strengths” with the care provided, while there were also “significant strengths” with the leadership and quality assurance.

The report reads: “The service sought feedback from people experiencing support and their relatives through group meetings and satisfaction surveys.

“A regular newsletter and social media were also used to communicate with people.

“The service had an effective and well completed self-evaluation of key areas that was reflective of our findings.

“This ensured that there was a culture of continuous improvement for people experiencing support.”

Staff recruitment processes were described as “thorough” while there was “good informal support” available from managers.

The report continued: “Regular face-to-face supervision sessions and regular team meetings were held to assist communicating effectively with staff.

“There were formal managerial observations of staff competence taking place for different practice areas.

“This ensured people experienced high-quality care and support based on relevant guidance and best practice.

“Staffing arrangements worked well with little agency staff being used, therefore care and support was consistent and stable.

“We observed that staff worked together well, in a positive and calm manner.

“This ensured people benefited from a warm atmosphere because there are good working relationships.”

'Positive action'

Twelve months ago, during a previous inspection, an area for improvement surrounding people and the administration of medication was highlighted.

The report noted that steps had been taken to make improvements.

It read: “The manager took positive action during the inspection to resolve this by changing the time of the care home’s daily meeting and reducing potential interruptions for staff while administering medications.

“Medications administered in the morning are being reviewed to see if some could be safely changed to another time of day and therefore reduce the length of time in the morning.

“Medication administration recording was of good quality.

“There were regular audits by managers and the community pharmacy which were satisfactory. Appropriate training for staff had been completed.

“Progress was clear and therefore this improvement has been met.”