The Ministry of Health has extended Kerikeri Retirement Village’s rest home certification for a further four years following an outstanding audit with no corrective actions required.
All rest homes and aged residential care facilities in NZ are certified and audited to ensure they provide safe, appropriate care for their residents, and meet the standards set out in the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001.
Rest home certification can be extended for two, three or four years – depending on the outcome of the audit. Most extensions are for three years and come with a list of improvements that need to be made.
Certifications of individual rest homes, and the corrective actions they call for, are viewable on the Ministry of Health website, health.govt.nz, by typing ‘rest home audits’ in the search box.
“We know from discussions with the families of our care residents that independent, impartial reviews of rest homes are hugely important when it comes to making decisions about where to place their loved ones,” said Hilary Sumpter, Kerikeri Retirement Village chief executive.
“Two-year extensions of certification normally indicate some level of concern on the part of inspectors so if a rest home has had more than a single two-year extension over the past six to eight years, it’s worth paying attention to the detail and corrective actions required.”
Certification audits cover all aspects of a rest-home’s operation, from the standard of clinical care right through to the quality of the food and cleaning services, documentation and record-keeping. A rest home can have its ability to operate removed if it fails audits.
Kerikeri Retirement Village has a quality and improvement plan which is continuously updated. A quality and risk co-ordinator oversees the facility’s compliance with legislation and ensures that it is ready for audit and inspection. Spot audits happen around the middle of the certification period at an unannounced time.
It has introduced a family and staff focus group. This meets quarterly and enables the facility to review its practices with outside input from the families of residents.
“This keeps our thinking fresh and ensures that we always operate with a level of uneasy anticipation, that wonderful state of mind that ensures we never relax and slip into a comfortable rut,” Ms Sumpter said.
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