CQC report: Meeting the health care needs of people in care homes

CQC report: Meeting the health care needs of people in care homes: Source: Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the results of a review of how older people and people with learning disabilities living in care homes access healthcare services, whether they have choice and control over their healthcare and whether they receive care that is safe and respects their dignity. Inspection teams visited 81 care homes within 9 PCT areas, interviewing managers, residents and staff, observing care and examining case files.
 
Key findings with respect to medication were as follows:
 
. Over half of homes (59%) indicated that they offered residents the option to self-administer their medicines, although only a small number of case files (4%) seen during the review contained evidence of self-administration of medicines.
 
. The majority of homes (93%) indicated that they 'always' recorded medicines errors and had arrangements in place to learn from errors relating to prescribing, monitoring, dispensing or administering ...