Charles Brownlow Retirement Village found non-compliant in four Aged Care Quality Standards

A Highton aged care home has been found non-compliant with a number of key standards.

Charles Brownlow Retirement Village in Highton is putting plans in place to improve care and governance practices after being found non-compliant in multiple areas. Picture: Mark Wilson.

       

The federal aged care watchdog has found a Highton facility failed to meet key standards around wound care and recognising deterioration.

The Charles Brownlow Retirement Village, located off South Valley Rd and operated by Ryman Healthcare, was also found non-compliant in the areas of personal and clinical care, and organisational governance.

A spokesman for the village said the organisation immediately implemented plans to address the issues raised.

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) representatives found staff failed to demonstrate best practice wound care, as they did not complete a wound assessment combined with a lack of documentation.

A resident experienced urinary incontinence following an extended period of waiting for assistance from staff.

Another resident with a history of chronic urinary tract infections (UTI) experienced behaviour changes such as the loss of appetite and frequency of urination, but was not investigated for a UTI, documents from the commission show.

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson.

The village spokesman said the four areas identified for improvement by the ACQSC related mainly to issues involving internal documentation and communication.

“We immediately put plans in place to address those issues,” he said.

“We expect to meet the highest clinical standards at all times and were pleased to have done so across 38 of the 42 different areas the commission’s assessment team looked at.”

An incident highlighted in the performance report outlined a resident who experienced four falls over 18 days and suffered a fracture, which was shown to have occurred two weeks prior to being detected.

The performance report was handed down last month.

The spokesman said the commission’s letter noted the Charles Brownlow care team’s response to the resident was appropriate.

“It found the village correctly followed its own policies by arranging for the resident to be independently assessed by an external GP and physiotherapist in a timely manner after each incident, who concluded that there were no signs to suggest a fracture had occurred,” he said.

“The commission’s recommendations for more clearly documented escalation processes in relation to this incident were helpful and have been actioned.”

The spokesman said the retirement village was working closely with the commission on the areas they were provided feedback on.

ACQSC’s Janet Anderson said when the commission found a provider was non-compliant with their obligations to provide safe and quality care and services, they were required to make improvements as soon as possible.

“The commission closely monitors the provider to ensure that they take timely, successful action to address the identified shortcomings,” she said.

“This is the current status of Charles Brownlow Retirement Village.

“Where a provider is slow, ineffective, or otherwise fails to achieve compliance or if we identify that the provider is placing residents at risk, we will take further action.

“This can include shortening a period of accreditation, issuing a sanction or, as a final resort when risks are ongoing and unmitigated, revoking the provider’s approval to deliver government subsidised aged care.”

In July, Charles Brownlow Retirement Village apologised to Rodney Reed over the care his late wife, Kathleen, received.

Mr Reed said the care his wife received was deficient and unacceptable and following her death last year, he filed a report to ACQSC that detailed his frustrations.

The facility provides high and low level residential aged care, specialist dementia care, and respite care with independent living units and serviced apartments.

The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.

Originally published as Charles Brownlow Retirement Village found non-compliant in four Aged Care Quality Standards