If you run a care home in England, then you know how crucial the role of Care Quality Commission is in driving up the care quality through its continuous assessment, effective regulations and consistent monitoring. In fact, the CQC also has the authority to ensure, if care providers are failing to meet the fundamental quality standards, they are held accountable or even shut down the institution. 

Following the inspection and review of their findings, the CQC will assign a grade to the care provider based on its key line of enquiries, which will be published on its website. The five KLOEs are Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-Led. Your care home will be given one of four ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, or Inadequate. Since the rating is published on the CQC website, it allows the public to make a choice while choosing a care home.  

The CQC's mission is to identify and eradicate all forms of negative conduct in the care sector. As a result, being accredited by the CQC indicates that a care provider meets the CQC's requirements, which have been accepted by the NHS and the government. 

CQC-registered care services are superior for two primary reasons:

• They are continually monitored and inspected to ensure that the quality and progress of their service is maintained.
• The CQC assigns ratings to services based on inspections, and these ratings serve as a benchmark for care providers to strive for.  

CQC inspections can be categorised into three types - 

1. A responsive inspection can be conducted at any moment in response to reported concerns
2. A themed inspection examines certain themes that are set nationwide in response to ongoing issues or events
3. A scheduled inspection is prepared in advance by CQC and can be conducted at any time

Whether your care home is going to undergo a scheduled, themed or responsive inspection, it is essential to operate at a high standard all the time. 

Yes, we know that you’ve heard this advice a million times.

But bear with me, because I’m going to help you by sharing the most common mistakes you can avoid while prepping for a CQC inspection.

So let’s get to it. 

1. Blind panic

Stress always tops the list, isn't it? 

It is true that CQC inspections can be a nerve-racking experience. But those moments of blind panic and stress might be the root cause of most mistakes. 

Wondering how to deal with it? Well, the source of stress and anxiety most likely stems from the fact that you are not being clear or confident about your procedures, practices or preparations. However, rather than making errors or earning a negative review on inspection, it would be better to gain a clear idea about what needs to be done and start working towards it. Once you are confident in your preparations, it will dissolve your anxiety and stress gradually. 

2. Poor record-keeping

The rule - ‘If it is not written down, it does not exist’, rings true in the healthcare sector. If you are running a care home, make record-keeping a top priority. Most care home owners or managers spend days and weeks ahead of a CQC inspection, collecting and organizing every document with the organization. But going for a scattergun approach with records keeping doesn't work in your favour. Poor records management can harm a business by slowing productivity, squandering valuable time, and producing unnecessary stress for employees.

The CQC needs to see that you have a detailed and consistent documentation system that is complete, legible, accurate, up-to-date and easily accessible for the team. It is always ideal to keep a record of personnel contracts, care home policies, audit logs, health and safety documentation, operational policies, business continuity plans, patient services and information and more. 

Recently, CQC has issued a statement recommending home care companies to utilise digital record systems whenever possible, owing in part to the CQC's ability to view digital information remotely to enhance their inspection process. Digital records also make your inspection more efficient and less stressful because you no longer have to spend time filing, organising, and compiling the paper documents requested by the CQC inspector.

3. Going solo

You might be well-experienced and qualified in running a care home efficiently, we are not going to doubt it. But even the most experienced need a helping hand to guide them through CQC inspections. Moreover, every staff in your care should be well aware of the role of CQC, its standards, key lines of enquiries and what to expect from an inspection. You need to provide informative training sessions for your workforce so that they will be up-to-date with the care home’s service protocols, CQC policies and more. 

Taking a solo approach towards CQC inspection might be a mistake as the CQC inspectors would be communicating with your team. Work together with your employees to discuss your procedures, collect feedbacks and brainstorm ideas for improvement.

4. Overlooking risk assessments

You can't solve problems by ignoring them, right? When you run a care home, there are always chances of negative feedbacks, complaints or any other issues. But rather than overlooking it, acknowledge the problems. Believe it or not, displeased customers just want to be heard. Establish a clear communication channel that disseminates the right information to the right people. 

Make it a point to conduct comprehensive risk assessments to evaluate the quality of service towards patients and employees. To remain on top of quality standards and policies, review and update your risk assessments on a regular basis.

5. Not conducting mock inspections

If you think carrying out mock inspections in your care home is a waste of time and resources, then nothing could be far from the truth. Conducting a mock inspection at intervals helps in testing your inspection ‘readiness’. Investing in a regulatory mock inspection process shows you care about patient safety, data integrity, and regulatory compliance.

The main purpose of a mock is to find flaws before the real CQC inspection. Do seek the service of an external organization or a competent person within your organization to carry out the mock inspection. The inspection should include assessing all areas across the five key lines of enquiries, communicating with patients, checking records and documentation and identifying areas for staff training. It is crucial the mock assessment of your care homes provides an honest review of the services provided along with an improvement plan. 

In a nutshell, you need to assure that your service delivers top-quality care at all times. We know CQC inspections keep you up at night and leaves you frustrated. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you wish to eliminate the stress of record-keeping and employee training to ensure that your service is CQC-compliant, it might be the right time to call the experts to help you.  

With a workforce management system like JMS One, you can not only manage and support staff to do their job effectively and efficiently but also keep your organisation on the right side of the CQC.  

And isn’t that what you want? 

So let us book a demo and see what JMS One could do for you.