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Change in the world of commercialised care

Update from Care Opinion

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picture of Kate Ebbutt

In my last post, I rashly challenged someone to show me online comments about care homes. I called and the internet answered, in the form the lovely Best Care Home,who show the best of care homes, by encouraging positive reviews about CQC 3star rated care homes. As Debbie says“it is about time we heard some positive news about [care homes]”.

This got me thinking… What is the advantageof having critical feedback about care homes? Or, rather, what is feedback for?At Patient Opinion we feel that our aim in healthcare is to facilitate changethrough getting just the right patient story to just the right person in theNHS. This change would not be possible if it wasn’t for the stories having acritical element. Increasingly, this is how public services are changing,through service users donating their experience, to make a difference foreveryone else. The patient is a becoming a co-creator of the service.

So, is there a difference for privatesector organisations like care homes? Both care homes and NHS hospitals areoften demonised by the media, both are plagued by funding issues, and choice isan issue for both. So… the difference? The care home sector is in constantbalance between care and money. The majority of care homes are privatecompanies, with reputations to manage. An understandable fear is that criticalpublic feedback will impact on negatively on their reputation, and then impacton the number of future residents. Maybe the difference isn’t so great then –as hospitals have a reputation to manage, and wish to attract patients.

Which leaves me wondering, what are theoptions for care homes, when faced with online feedback? The options are: sue anyonewho allows people to write critical comments, or choose to engage with theseconcerns online. It’s not an easy path to follow, but embracing thetransformative power of the web might allow care homes to discover a new placein the 21st Century.

Response from LisaW on

Interestingly enough, I wrote a very similar post on my blog recently about why it is that carehomes put their heads in the sand when it comes to feedback rather than encouraging it http://carehomes.whereforcare.com/blog/?p=216. I do to a large degree, think it is a fear developed through the mostly negative press that the industry is given.

Response from George_TQ on

Great posts Kate, thank you. Your earlier post and Debbie's comments got me thinking and I wonder whether in terms of supporting residents in a way similar to a PTA, there are lessons/ideas that can be drawn from Resident Associations in Extracare Housing developments - maybe a resident or relative association model. I think many care homes (as other social care providers) are very threatened by the media but they are also concerned and driven by the inspection regime. It would seem logical to me that the best homes are those who are prepared to be brave, seek out feedback and engage/respond to it, but I suspect that there is a real concern that by engaging so publically they risk losing business - drawing attention to their errors/development needs and I suppose that the difference between hospitals and care homes is that rarely are hospitals going to go out of business if they perform badly! I have been working on a safeguarding project over the past couple years and have heard many times that inspectors view care homes with lots of alerts as poorly performing and yet in reality the opposite is likely to be the case - people know how to raise an alert and feel comfortable doing so. I think starting with the positive stories is a great idea. Also wasn't sure if you were familiar with My Home Life but it's worth a look http://www.myhomelife.org.uk/

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