Coroner Criticises Care of Salisbury Nursing Home Resident (AUSTRALIA)

Coroner criticises care of Salisbury nursing home resident

BY JORDANNA SCHRIEVER, COURT REPORTER

October 16, 2009

A NURSING home provided inadequate care to a dementia patient which resulted in his death, the state coroner has ruled.
Coroner Mark Johns had investigated the death of Hayden William Childs, 77, who died in hospital days after he was rushed from the Salisbury Private Nursing Home after a handkerchief was found lodged in his throat.
"Mr Childs' care plan was inadequate in that it failed to properly set out, with appropriate prominence, his at-risk behaviour in placing objects in his mouth which led to the risk of choking," Mr Johns said.
He said while many of the home's permanent staff believed the handkerchiefs were inappropriate for Mr Childs, they were still stored in his wardrobe - creating an "ever-present risk" agency carers would think they were appropriate given Mr Childs' propensity for dribbling.
"The fact that the care plan did not prominently warn against the use of handkerchiefs ... made it even mrore likely that a carer might make the mistake of providing one to Mr Childs," Mr Johns said.
One agency employee had told the court he had given Mr Childs a handkerchief a few hours before his death, but was not aware of Mr Childs' habit of placing objects in his mouth.
Mr Johns made no recommendations in the matter because he said the nursing home had since made numerous improvements, including the revision of all patient care plans.
Mr Childs' daughter, Glenda Curtis, had told the inquest she believed her father, who suffered from alcoholism and dementia, was neglected by the home in the year before his death.
She had also described the home as a "concentration camp" after seeing his frail body.
Today, the nursing home's executice officer Barry Lowe said the home accepted the findings, and blamed the recruitment agency it had contracted.
"As presented to the coroner, we are still of the opinion that the recruitment agency we contracted were deficient in the training of their staff, and accordingly we do not use that organisation anymore," Mr Lowe said.
He said the home had made changes since Mr Child's death and three independent reviews of the home found it had not breached any requirements, standards or laws.


SOURCE:   ADELAIDE NOW


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