Kamo Home - Our Journey

Kamo Home is located in the picturesque town of Kamo, Whangarei, New Zealand and is set on a gentle north facing slope overlooking native bush and Mount Parakiore.

Our results are now proving our journey is well under way and our mission statement is achievable.

"Quality for Life with Care"

When asked to write this article and how we have achieved to date some of our best results, we had to really think about it. There is no one specific thing that has brought about the improved results, perhaps it is more so our strategic focus on provision of quality care has given the positive cultural change we are now experiencing. Some of the items that have been put into place to support our focus are defined process maps with specific role allocation, in process measures, corrective action and an applied performance management system.
We have reduced our paper based systems with an increase in technological systems. All Management, Registered Nurses and Senior Care staff now have access to the in-house documentation at any time. This "any time" also includes accessibility from outside of the facility either by remote access by landline computer, laptop, note pads or mobile phones. This has enabled more active communication methodology. Communication plays a huge role in provision of quality care.

With the mention of Process Maps, Kamo Home has also introduced "in-process measures", a system which ensures that ongoing checks are made and that all appropriate procedures have been followed. Supporting these in-process measures have been the over arching quality checks for QPS Benchmarking. We do not have to wait for the quarterly report - we already know what our data looks like, however it is great to be able to see how we benchmark against other facilities. The report becomes our driver for increasing or maintaining our performance. The in-process checks can often identify individuals performance, or lack of, which often will result in a corrective action procedure being undertaken. If the checks identify a group situation of varied performance, we have applied "outcome meetings"; always meeting for a purpose and an agreed outcome.

Kamo Home operates with a Balanced Score Care (BSC) approach - 12 key measures reported monthly for Management and Board analysis. Data for the BSC is collected from four sectors (Resident, Staff, Process, and Financial). With this regular monitoring we can quickly change our focus if required and put effort into an identified priority.

Recruitment and retention of our staff has been a priority focus for Kamo Home. Whilst it would be wonderful to be able to employ only fully qualified and knowledgeable staff, as per many facilities this is not the practise. Our concentration has gone to ensuring we have a stringent orientation process, paid training, meeting times and external training (Supervision skills) for our Registered Nurses to enable them to feel confident when addressing staff issues during their rostered shift. Three monthly staff meetings are held to provide two way communication and these meetings are supported with an annual staff satisfaction survey. We have found that our staff are more confident to provide feedback immediately rather than waiting for these more formal sessions. From the feedback received we have implemented some excellent initiatives - one such initiative has been the picture of individual residents positioned in the sling for hoist and posted in their rooms for all care staff from each shift to take note of. No variations are tolerated. This has reduced incidents of sliding in the sling and resident's concern for their own safety. Staff have expressed that they feel more confident with their actions since this implementation.
While our results are improving, we are not stopping there; our journey is to strive for continuous improvement.

Any interested readers wanting to discuss best practices can contact Trish or Zoe through emails below.

trishm@kamohome.co.na (Quality and Risk Coordinator)

zoep@kamohome.co.nz (General Manager)