Elderly Home Care Solutions: Sydney aged care provider fails compliance standards in aged care watchdog probe

A report into an eastern Sydney aged care provider has raised a string of compliance concerns including some staff lacking qualifications to perform their roles.

An eastern Sydney home care provider to aged residents has been ordered to improve its standards after failing multiple compliance measures during an inspection by the aged care watchdog.

A report into services provided by Elderly Home Care Solutions, based in Clovelly, stated the facility was not compliant with all eight of the key compliance measures the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission uses to assess aged care standards.

The report followed an inspection by the regulator in September this year which detailed concerns including the company being unable to demonstrate that all members of its workforce “were competent and had the qualifications or knowledge to perform their roles”.

In response to the audit, the centre has been issued with 19 requirements it must meet to ensure compliance standards.

The report, made public this month by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, raised concerns over care and services plans for residents which the report stated was unable to demonstrate up-to-date care for residents.

The inspection was conducted by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Photo: Stock.

According to the commission, not all care planning documents considered potential risks to health and wellbeing of residents including falls, changed behaviours, delirium, nutrition and hydration and skin integrity.

Staff training was another area of concern with the audit stating “minimal training” was provided to staff once they had completed their inductions.

Support workers told inspectors while access to care and service plans was available via a mobile phone app, most said they do not access these for daily living supports as most care and services plans do not reflect services and supports being provided to residents.

The service is based in Clovelly. Photo: Stock.

Other areas of concerns outlined in the audit included the absence of an outbreak management plan for infection control.

In a written response to the report, the Elderly Home Care Solutions told the Commission that it had implemented an improvement plan with measures including additional staff training

The service said it was also taking steps to understand subcontracting arrangements and to “monitor qualifications and capability of subcontracted staff”.

It said induction and onboarding arrangements would also be reviewed to ensure staff were competent and adequately trained.

In a statement, a spokesman for Elderly Home Care Solutions said: “We acknowledge there are areas that we can improve on, however (we) would like to emphasise that client satisfaction and safety is of paramount concern,” he said.

“Feedback from our clients was according to the auditors ‘unprecedented’ in their praise of our services.

“Even as a small provider, operating from a single office in Randwick, we are subject to the same governance and compliance as the largest national operators. Even as a single sole owner we are required to have an independent governing board – along with a Quality Care Advisory board and Client Advisory Board.

“We have been advised by the Aged Care Quality Commission that we are on track to return to conformance.”

The audit is part of checks by the Commission which assesses aged care providers against eight quality benchmarks.

The standards are designed to make it easier to check that residents of aged care facilities receive “good care” and outline what “a good aged care should look like”.