Abbey Lodge Care Home - St Albans

We found the following examples of good practice.

The provider was transparent when sharing information with people and their relatives about how the service is managing the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the inspection there was a decision made to restrict visits. People had access to other means to communicate with their family. For example, video calls and phone calls.

The service was able to cohort and zone sections of the property to ensure that people were safe when there was an outbreak in the home.

People we spoke to felt the staff had been supportive and reassured them throughout the pandemic. People and staff were involved in regular testing, in addition they were in the process of having the vaccination.

The service was clean and hygienic. Robust cleaning measure were put into place. For example, they had measures in place to make sure high touch areas maintain a high level of cleanliness. When the service had an outbreak, they had an external company complete a deep clean which included disinfecting the whole service and purifying the area.

The provider had developed policies, procedures and guidance for the service which had been implemented. Quality assurance audits were being completed during the COVID-19 pandemic to reflect best practice. Staff knew how to immediately instigate full infection control measures to care for a person with symptoms to avoid the virus spreading to other people and staff members.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found