Pearls of Wisdom = Great Satisfaction

Ascott Gardens is a 62 bed low care facility in the Central West of NSW (Orange), with 38 general beds and a 24 bed dementia specific unit. The facility is part of the United Protestant's Association of NSW group of aged care facilities which commenced benchmarking with QPS in 2006. For the past two years Ascott Gardens have consistently achieved above average results in both resident and relative satisfaction.

In this article Margaret Langford-Smith the Care Manager for Ascott Gardens shares her philosophy and some of the strategies that have resulted in their high levels of satisfaction.

Pearls of Wisdom

It is amazing that pearls are formed by irritated oysters dealing with gritty bits of sand! Margaret points out that at Ascott Gardens, they can identify with those oysters.

Many years ago in the early days of Accreditation, management were made aware of the fact that they now had to deal with the outcome standards that related to residents having their "say". This included collecting information about how residents felt about their home and whether or not management provided appropriate and sufficient feedback. Margaret and her team quickly identified that they could improve in this area, and so the first grain of sand was planted. It was not long before drafting, circulating and collating simple surveys on a regular basis became the norm.
The introduction of the Aged Care Accreditation Standards had made Margaret's team aware of the opportunity to provide residents, staff and visitors with very open lines of communication in relation to feedback. The aim was not only to meet the standards, but to exceed them by promoting feedback and providing progress reports before meetings with groups and individuals. This meant that documentation could be signed off at the end of each improvement process.

Ascott Gardens is now an Oyster Farm!

The culture of the organisation now means that management and staff welcome criticism and suggestions - they are opportunities to grow pearls. Staff find it very rewarding when QPS Benchmarking reports are received and performance in both resident and relative satisfaction compare favourably to other aged care facilities. Management and staff see their results in these KPIs as confirmation that their hard work has paid off.

Many different strategies have been implemented over the past two years. The following list highlights the activities and commitment by Ascott Gardens to continue making improvements in the area of resident and relative satisfaction:

• A simple 'What do you think' form for residents, families and visitors in the front foyer. Everyone, including visitors is shown this form and reminded to use them for suggestions etc.
• A Continuous Improvement Tool (CIT) form for staff suggestions and concerns. Staff members are given practice at filling in this form as part of their staff induction.
• Annual resident and employee satisfaction surveys which are now done through QPS. The facility finds the breakdown of graphs great and believes that the comments are invaluable. Every suggestion for improvement is written onto a CIT form, to be actioned and taken to meetings for follow up.
• Case conferences with residents and their family members about staffing, relevant health professionals etc. This has proved to be very useful for understanding and communicating residents' needs and feelings.
• 'Share the Care' family support group meetings - with families able to share with other families.
• Volunteers who bring friendship and support.
• Residents' meetings where residents elect the chairman (family representative or volunteer). Issues concerning residents are documented and signed off at meetings.