A nursing home part-owned by James Reilly, the health minister, has been criticised by an inspection team from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
An unannounced inspection of Greenhills nursing home in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary last February found evidence of “poor and unsafe medication management systems”.
In one case a resident had not been administered a prescribed medication for eight months, while discrepancies were found between the medications administered to residents and those listed on their prescription sheets. One drug dosage had been amended by the attachment of a Post-it note to a medication sheet.
A spokesman for Reilly said that although the health minister was “among a group of people who own property in which the nursing home is located, he has no involvement in [its] running”. He said the business “is currently being run by separate owners”.
Reilly’s declaration of members’ interests shows he has transferred his one-quarter share in the nursing home to a blind trust, on the recommendation of the Standards in Public Office Commission.
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The Hiqa inspector found residents’ complaints were not being brought to management of Greenhills. One woman reported that she had made a recent representation to authorities in the nursing home, but the official log stated the last complaint was recorded in December 2009.
Overall, residents reported “a good level of satisfaction with the staff” and their care, but they also “clearly identified areas they believed required review to improve their quality of life”, the report states.
Problems identified included noise levels, the lack of a quiet space, the infrequency of Mass, and the lack of secure storage space for valuables. Minutes of meetings of a residents’ forum were not available for inspection by Hiqa, so it was not possible to say if issues raised by residents were dealt with, the report says.
The authority checked the Tipperary nursing home during a scheduled two-day inspection in November 2009. The follow-up examination in February was unannounced, and designed to assess if a number of recommendations arising out of the previous review were met.
“Overall the inspection findings did not support satisfactory implementation of the required improvements as outlined in the action plan,” the inspectors found. “Of the eight actions reviewed by the inspectors, one was satisfactorily implemented, two were substantially implemented but further action was required, five actions were not met and were reissued to the providers.”
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Hiqa recommended improvements in two key areas: medication management and care planning. It recommended further measures be taken to prevent accidents, particularly in relation to falls and smoking. Record-keeping of accidents was found to be “inconsistent” and the management and prevention of falls was “inconsistently applied”.
Hiqa also criticised the practice of allowing residents at high risk for burns to smoke cigarettes in a dedicated smoking room without supervision.
Greenhills, which opened in 2001, accommodates 55 residents requiring long-term, convalescent and dementia care. On the day of the inspection there were 54 residents living in the centre.
In its response to the Hiqa findings, management at Greenhills said it has reviewed medication management with staff to put in place new procedures on ordering, prescribing, storing and administering medicine. They said they would audit and evaluate their new system in future. Records are now being maintained to record all accidents and incidents.