Health and Safety Audit Checklist For Care Homes

An effective health and safety audit checklist is critical for care home compliance, and should reflect the standards framework of your national regulator.

Every business has the legal duty to ensure the health and safety of all their staff and service users, which necessitates effective health and safety practices in every company.

Equipment

No matter if you run a care home, restaurant, school, hairdresser or any other business - your legal duty is to keep all employees, customers and visitors safe. A health and safety auditing can help identify risks to protect the people involved while setting in place preventive measures against them.

Equipment may pose a health and safety risk when improperly used, particularly for bed to chair transfers that can lead to injuries for both carer and resident.

Care Homes must comply with regulations and outcomes set by the Care Quality Commission in regards to equipment provision, such as Outcome 11 which addresses safe, available and suitable provision of standard equipment. Risk assessment processes should include consideration of specialized furniture and equipment.

Cleaning

Care homes provide an ideal living environment for elderly individuals who have compromised immune systems, but it must remain clean to avoid illness outbreaks. Staff should wash their hands frequently as part of infection control guidelines in the facility.

Food supplies should also be thoroughly sterilised and equipment used must be thoroughly cleansed before being used in care homes. Care home staff should wear aprons, gloves and hairnets when handling food to reduce cross-contamination risk.

As many elderly individuals can be at risk of falls in care settings, it is crucial that entrances, hallways and floors be free from trip hazards such as tripping hazards. Furthermore, the use of rags, mops and other cleaning tools must be closely monitored as they can spread germs quickly - an alternative may be electrostatic spraying which applies a thin film of disinfectant across surfaces in an electrostatic field.

Food

Care homes serving food to residents or staff alike must uphold high quality standards when serving meals to avoid food poisoning, sickness absence claims or injury compensation claims which are all expensive for the care home.

Audits are integral in ensuring the food served to residents is safe. This involves keeping an eye on refrigerator temperatures, stock control (e.g. using by, best before or display until dates), chopping board standards, cleaning routines, etc. Since each of these areas could pose risks to resident health and wellbeing, contingency plans, documentation and a robust audit process must be put in place; any quality care home should have these processes in place.

Medication

Care homes should establish an effective system to ensure that each resident receives their appropriate medication on schedule, including checking drug, dose and route of administration. Furthermore, care homes should ensure medication reviews take place regularly.

Medication errors rarely result from one individual, but rather are the result of systemic issues that need to be addressed step-by-step.

Under state and federal law, businesses are legally required to conduct periodic health and safety audits to mitigate risks from accidents and incidents. Lumiform App can help care homes streamline inspections more efficiently while making them safer for residents as it's far simpler than using paper lists or Excel lists.

Staff

Breaches of health and safety laws can be costly for businesses. Violating them often results in expensive court fines, sickness absence costs and compensation claims being issued against them.

Staff in a care home must dedicate the time and attention necessary to building trustful relationships and prioritising resident wellbeing. Staff should also ask residents for their views and preferences so they can deliver tailored care plans.

Staff should possess the training, qualifications and skills needed to provide residents with safe environments. This should include developing individual emergency evacuation plans for each resident that should be tested regularly and modified as necessary (e.g. after a fire). A business continuity plan should also be regularly tested - this plan should include information on how and where residents would be moved should an emergency occur.