- The canton of Aargau has imposed a freeze on the admission of new patients to a nursing home.
- For example, the home did not fully document the patients’ falls.
- In January, five measures were taken that should have been completed by the end of April.
- A freeze on admissions is the great exception, says the canton of Aargau.
The canton reports that the affected Aargau nursing home lacks a list on which errors in medication administration must be recorded. If, for example, a medication is administered in the wrong dosage, this must be recorded and reported.
“There is also no form for reporting such an incident to the nursing service manager. There is also a lack of complete documentation of falls and their consequences (e.g. hospital admission) and systematic processing of these,” the statement says.
Legend:
Administering medication – this must be documented. A nursing home in Aargau did not do this correctly.
Keystone/Goran Basic
It is about how retirement and nursing homes ensure their quality. If medication is administered incorrectly, this must be noted in a retirement and nursing home. Even if the nursing staff is absent at short notice or a resident has to go to hospital after a fall in the home, this is recorded in writing. In addition, a home needs concepts, procedures and process management so that quality can be further developed.
Legend:
The sanction of a retirement home is rare.
Keystone/Goran Basic
- The approximately 100 care institutions in the canton of Aargau are regularly inspected.
- Each nursing home is inspected every four years, meaning that audits are carried out in approximately 25 institutions each year.
- These audits are carried out by the certification company Sanacert on behalf of the cantonal department of health and social affairs.
- The steering group can approve around 80 percent of the audit reports without conditions; for the remaining reports, it imposes conditions and recommendations that the nursing homes must fulfill within a set deadline.
- Of 100 nursing homes, only the one in East Aargau will be sanctioned, the canton reports.
The canton has imposed various requirements on the nursing home since 2022. However, because the home had not fulfilled five requirements from January 2024 by the end of April 2024, the Health Department announced that it had imposed a freeze on admissions in mid-May 2024. Anyone who has lived there up to now can stay.
When asked, the canton said that five conditions are rather too many. The stop is in effect until the end of August. As soon as the requirements are met, the home can accept new patients again. The canton did not disclose which home this specifically is.
Staff changes or insufficient staff
The canton has been in regular contact with the affected nursing home since 2022, Björn Mohler, head of the long-term care section in the canton of Aargau, told SRF. “It all accumulated.”
During that period, there were complaints from employees and reports to the ombudsman’s office. At times, the home had too few qualified staff or even too few staff.
It all accumulated.
During the last inspection four years ago, there were no problems with the home’s documentation, Mohler continues. However, there have been several changes in nursing management recently. “It is difficult to say exactly what is going on. There have been three nursing managers within 18 months – that is fundamentally not a good basis for a continuous continuation of the existing quality.”
First admission freeze in seven years
The homes themselves are responsible for implementing this quality assurance, but they must provide annual proof to the responsible cantonal department that they are doing so.
If a home provides the necessary information, it is approved as an inpatient service provider in long-term care. If this proof of quality is not provided, measures are taken. In an emergency, the canton can also withdraw a home’s approval, according to the ordinance on the Aargau Care Act.
Legend:
Due to administrative errors, a nursing home in Aargau must first make improvements before it can accept patients again. The canton does not say which nursing home it is.
Keystone/Goran Basic
The canton says it is in contact with the home and its management. According to the department, there have been warnings for homes in Aargau over the past seven years, but no admission freezes as in the current case.