The Covid-19 crisis has put the control of infections at the top of everyone’s agenda. This is particularly the case when it comes to care homes.
Although it is not possible for any care home to be 100% safe from infection, Cramond Residence has followed best practice in this area to keep its residents as safe as possible.
Key safety measures
- A 1:4 care staff to resident ratio
- Residents are cared for in small groups
- PPE and staff uniform is kept on-site
- Strict social distancing and PPE protocol at all time
- Regular resilience meetings to plan our response to infection
- A negative-pressure ventilation system throughout
Designed with safety in mind
Small group living limits transmission
Large communal areas can lead to the fast spread of infection. Cramond Residence’s design helps to solve this problem. The Residence is based on nine individual homes (most comprising just 8 bedrooms), with each home having its own self-contained facilities. This small-group living approach makes it much easier to limit the spread of infections.
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Negative-pressure ventilation removes germs
The Residence’s mechanical ventilation system creates a negative pressure that extracts airborne germs/droplets from each bedroom (individual rooms have individual air supplies). This approach also ensures there is no drift of air into circulation spaces. Overall, this significantly reduces any risk of cross infection.
En-suites help enhance infection prevention
All bedrooms in Cramond Residence have en-suite shower rooms. This removes the need for residents to share bathing and toilet facilities and makes personal infection prevention targets that much easier to achieve.
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PPE and staff uniform kept on-site
We follow best practice in the use and management of personal protective equipment (PPE) and staff uniforms. Staff are provided with multiple uniforms which are always laundered on site in appliances that reach the correct disinfection temperatures. We also ensure that staff uniforms and shoes never leave the building, which removes a potential channel for infection.
High quality staff and management
Care staff ratio and cohorting reduce infection risk
We operate with a care-staff-to-resident ratio of at least 1:4, which gives us the resources to implement best practice when it comes to infection prevention. In periods of heightened risk, we adopt a staffing system known as cohorting. This sees staff dedicated to just one of our self-contained homes. It dramatically reduces the potential for infections to spread.
Staff training ensures best practice
All staff are recruited and trained so that they have the expertise to comply with the strictest infection prevention measures. This has meant that during the Coronavirus pandemic all staff (including catering, housekeeping and maintenance) have followed the strictest possible hygiene, PPE and distancing protocols.
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Careful planning keeps infection at bay
Our management team carefully plans their response to infection and holds regular resilience meetings to ensure we are fully up-to-date with government guidelines and that we can adapt quickly to meet each new development. We place great emphasis on transparency and all relatives of residents are e-mailed regularly with updates on what we are doing.
Resident care focused on safety
Throughout the Coronavirus crisis, we have implemented all government advice on testing, social distancing, the use of PPE and visitor access to the Residence. Moving forward, we are abiding by all current guidance and working with our residents and their family and friends to keep everyone as safe as possible.
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