Carol Altmann – The Terrier

This time a year ago, a personal care worker at Lyndoch Living faced a nightmare scenario – a resident suffered a cardiac arrest and the nurse call system failed.

The care worker desperately tried to contact the on-duty Registered Nurse, who was in another part of Lyndoch – the new Swinton Wing – but the calls failed to go through.

The nurse-to-nurse comms system hit a black spot; a wireless dead zone that has plagued parts of Lyndoch for two years.

It was only when the RN moved out of the black spot that the frantic emergency calls came piling in from the care worker.

Fortunately, in the meantime, the care worker was helped by other staff to administer CPR and the resident survived.

Twelve months on, and the nurse-to-nurse call system is still failing. It is still not 100 per cent reliable across Swinton Wing and neither is the resident call bell system, or mobile phones.

All three are different systems, and all three suffer from the wi-fi black spots that can affect calls coming into Swinton Wing, going out of Swinton Wing, or between people inside Swinton Wing.

While the near fatality is the most serious incident that I am aware of from the past 12 months, there have been other red flags in more recent times.

In one case, a resident was left on a toilet for more than 40 minutes after the call bell failed to alert a nurse.

It’s hard to believe a nursing home is allowed to operate without a 100 per cent reliable call system for nurses and residents, but Lyndoch does.

It’s even harder to believe that the area with the black spots, Swinton Wing, re-opened last year after a $13 million makeover that, my sources tell me, failed to include an IT expert in the planning.

As of today, staff are still lodging ‘black spot’ complaints.

Part of the problem, apparently, is that a key piece of wireless equipment was destroyed by a lightning strike in 2019 and has not yet been replaced because it would cost around $500,000.

There are also compatibility issues between old technology and new technology across the different wings of Lyndoch.

Added to this is what has been a tumultuous time in Lyndoch’s IT department, including its Director of Technology, Strategy & Transformation, Dr Ed Rhode, resigning in April after less than two years, and the loss of two other staff more recently.

Before these resignations, there was some progress early this year when it was announced a new nurse-to-nurse call system would be rolled out from June to December although, according to one report, there were “no guarantees it will work”.

There were “no guarantees” because the new system could suffer the same issues as the old system, unless the underlying problems were resolved.

The roll-out hasn’t happened.

First the excuse was a supply problem.

Then the delay was blamed on Covid-19 preventing experts coming on site to install the equipment, even though it;s classed as an essential service.

But sources believe – and I am trying to confirm this from Lyndoch – that things have ground to a halt because Lyndoch is not prepared or is unable to spend the money.

A proper fix must include “back end” upgrades, equipment upgrades and ongoing maintenance, and all of that costs money.

And right now, Lyndoch is plunging its money and bank loans into the $22 million medical clinic being built just 100m from Swinton Wing.

A medical clinic that will have no discernible impact on improving the safety of the residents.

It’s not surprising that Lyndoch care staff are frustrated and angry.

As one put it, they are “sick of fighting for the basics, while they continue to pour money down the drain on this medical centre”,

Others are frightened, knowing they are unwilling players in a game of Russian roulette where the consequences for a resident could be fatal.

Again, this is not scaremongering, this is real and I, for one, find it both disturbing and frightening.

I asked Lyndoch and its chair Sue Cassidy for comment on these issues today. If any is forthcoming, I will publish it in full.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Exclusive

Lyndoch Living has failed seven of the eight quality standards for its May Noonan Centre in Terang, after an audit by the national aged care watchdog.

The audit by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission in April found Lyndoch was non-compliant in almost half of the 42 benchmarks that make up the eight national standards.

In one standard – ongoing assessment and planning with consumers – the May Noonan aged care home failed on all five out of five benchmarks.

The damning report – released online this week – found a string of shortfalls, including that “staff do not understand what constitutes chemical restraint and actions do not minimise the use of chemical restraint”.

It also found the service “does not effectively manage high impact high prevalence risks including in relation to falls, medication, behavioural and weight management and urinary catheters.”

The audit also found staff do not act in a timely manner to deterioration or changes to a resident’s health.

In one example, a resident had been feeling unwell for several weeks and, despite documentation recording this and the resident’s representative telling staff repeatedly, no action was taken until the resident became feverish.

Only then was the resident assessed by an external registered nurse and found to have urinary retention.

The assessment team also found some information available was out of date and/or incomplete;

instances of directives made by health professionals and not acted upon by staff;

handover information does not include risks;

charting, assessments and care plans were not consistent or current for all residents sampled.

Staff were friendly, gentle and caring, but – once again – the report reveals that there is simply not enough of them.

Staff shortages and qualifications were captured in this pithy summary: “the number and mix of members of the workforce does not enable the delivery and management of safe and quality care and services.”

And this: “The Assessment Team found the service does not demonstrate staff have the knowledge to effectively perform their roles”.

This report follows a similarly damning audit of the Lyndoch nursing home in Warrnambool, reported here in June, which found Lyndoch was non-compliant in three out of four key measures for resident care and staffing.

[From my search of the commission website, Lyndoch is the only aged care home in Warrnambool and Port Fairy to have been found non-compliant in multiple areas.]

Lyndoch Living bought the 40-bed May Noonan hostel in late 2018.

At that time, it had passed accreditation by meeting all 44 of the 44 requirements and was due for reaccreditation in July 2021.

This has now been deferred by the commission until next January due to Covid-19.

This latest report says Lyndoch appointed a new manager to May Noonan in March and that many of the issues were now being addressed, including an audit of all residents, however the assessor determined that because this remedial action was “still in progress”, the home remained in breach.

[You can download the full report here]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living today held a ceremony to celebrate the turning of the first sod on its $22 million medical clinic on Hopkins Rd.

Red rope and gold pillars, like those you see outside nightclubs, marked the VIP area on the razed Tomlinson site that remains littered with a pile of unanswered questions, like how will this benefit the residents?

There didn’t appear to be any VIPs other than the board who turned up today, and there was no sign of any residents.

Neither was there any care staff who, 100m away from the sod, are still battling with an unreliable nurse call system.

These staff must wonder, surely, how Lyndoch can afford to spend $22 million on a medical clinic while such basics as the call system remain dodgy.

This is the mobile system that connects care workers as they move from wing to wing and floor to floor.

It’s the spinal cord of the communications system and yet is not 100 per cent reliable and plagued by black spots.

This means calls between care staff can drop out, which, in an emergency, is a bit like us dialing 000 and nobody answers.

Lyndoch has known about these system failings for more than a year and yet, for whatever reason, it still hasn’t been fixed.

In that time, there has been at least one serious incident involving an emergency with a resident and the call system breaking down.

How such lop-sided priorities within Lyndoch remain acceptable is beyond me and I can only ponder, as the board lines up for photo opportunities with a shiny spade, if they are aware.

They are now.

[Once again, I am sorry, but I have comments turned off on this post until a current legal action involving Lyndoch is sorted.]