TWO OUT of three private nursing home owners feel the new national standards for their sector are not being interpreted and applied consistently across the State by inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
The nursing home owners were surveyed by Prospectus Consultants and its report is being published today on the first anniversary of the commencement of independent inspections of all nursing homes by Hiqa.
Some 133 private nursing homes – about 33 per cent of the total – responded to the survey in May.
The report says nursing home groups in particular who have adopted a standardised approach to meeting the national standards noticed inconsistencies in how the standards were being applied. Despite the fact that their homes were adopting the same approach to each inspection “the level of compliance achieved by nursing homes was mixed where different inspectors had managed individual inspections”.
Overall, however, the report says home owners believed the approach by Hiqa was more comprehensive and balanced than that previously adopted by the HSE when it inspected their homes. Most also felt the Hiqa inspection process has contributed to the raising of standards and is far more resident-focused than the previous inspection regime.
A range of concerns were nonetheless raised by private nursing home operators. Some 21 per cent of homes did not feel they or their staff had sufficient opportunity to discuss the initial findings of Hiqa inspections with inspectors. And 28 per cent were not happy that their feedback to Hiqa was dealt with as expected, with most feeling it had been disregarded.
They also felt an agreed approach to calculating the number and required skill-mix of staff within a home should be specified in the national standards.
A common criticism was the fact that inspection reports now included direct quotes from residents and their relatives. “Respondents have reservations as regards the value of this practice . . . and share concerns about the risk that comments are over-emphasised by the report writer or in some cases taken out of context by future readers.”
The report, which makes 29 recommendations, says these comments should be excluded in future. It also recommends the national standards should be reviewed within 18 months.
Home owners also expressed concern at the lack of an appeals process if they were dissatisfied with an inspection report.
Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland – the representative body for the private and voluntary nursing homes sector which commissioned the report – said he fully supports the new inspection regime but the lack of consistency deduced from the survey “is a significant challenge for Hiqa and is one that requires close attention to ensure the necessary confidence in this new system”.
The report has been presented to Hiqa and the Department of Health but Hiqa was not commenting on its findings last night.