Managing deterioration in care homes
Our Managing Deterioration Safety Improvement Programme has seen significant progress throughout 2022/23, and the positive impact and spread continues across the South West. The South West Patient Safety Collaborative has continued to support the training of care home staff in the use of valuable tools to manage deterioration.
Recognising deterioration in a timely manner can help prevent or minimise the need for escalation to hospital settings among care home residents.
The South West Patient Safety Collaborative has continued to support the training of care home staff in the use of valuable managing deterioration tools, including RESTORE2 – a tool that supports care homes and health professionals to recognise when the person they are caring for may be deteriorating or at risk of physical deterioration.
In 2022/23:
- 1,200 staff in 245+ care homes across the South West were trained in RESTORE2
- 196 domiciliary care staff from 26 agencies and organisations across the South West were trained in RESTORE2
- 200+ staff across the South West took part in specialist dementia training and Enhanced Health in Care Homes
In the South West, RESTORE2 training, adoption and sustainability across 2022/23 has supported these impacts:
- Reduced Emergency Department attendances and hospital admissions by care homes residents at all acute trusts in Devon.
- Reduced short stay admissions from care homes (Apr 22 – Jan 23).
- Reduced GP, out of hours and emergency interventions.
- RESTORE2 training has Instilled confidence in care home staff to recognise early signs of deterioration and manage deterioration effectively to support. management of their long-term conditions.
- Increased usage of RESTORE2 in Learning Disability settings, particularly in Plymouth, which is having a positive impact on monitoring residents’ long-term conditions.
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“…We used it [RESTORE2] for a resident who was unwell. We took vital signs, got a NEWS2 [National Early Warning Score 2], followed the escalation pathway and repeated his vital signs every two hours until his NEWS2 was normal for him. This avoided a GP call/visit and meant the resident could stay in the home until he recovered.”
Care Home Worker, Devon
