Archived: Alexandra House - Poole

At this inspection we spoke with three people about their experiences of living at the home. We also spoke with three relatives, a healthcare professional and seven members of staff including the manager and a senior manager. Staff told us Alexandra House was a, “friendly, homely environment”.

We found that people’s privacy, dignity and independence were respected, and care and treatment was planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure people's safety and welfare. One relative we talked with told us, “In general I am very pleased with Alexandra House”. An individual who lived at Alexandra House said, “We are looked after”.

The provider had taken steps to provide care in an environment that was suitably designed and adequately maintained.

Alexandra House regularly checked the quality and safety of the service people experienced.

People were protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment because information about them was mainly complete and accurate.

The mental and physical frailty of most people living at the home meant that we were only able to speak with two people about their experiences of living at the home. They told us their preferred lifestyles were respected and their needs were met. They said they felt safe, the home's staff were kind and their accommodation was clean and well maintained.

We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people using the service.

We spoke to the relatives of three people who told us they were happy with the care the home provided.

We gathered evidence of people's experiences of the service by reviewing relevant records and by observing where it was appropriate the care and support people received.

We contacted officers who worked for the local authority's adult services department to obtain their views about the home.

We found that found that people's dignity was not always upheld and their needs were not always met.

The home's systems and equipment had been serviced and tested regularly to ensure they worked. However people were not fully protected from the high temperature of hot water in hand-basins.

Not all records we looked at were sufficiently detailed, accurate and up to date. The manager had however already identified this and had an action plan in place to put it right.