Debated in Parliament on 19 Jan 2015.
Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef asked the Minister for Health (a) with the forthcoming implementation of the new Enhanced Nursing Home Standards (ENHS) in 2015, how and what are the efforts put in by the Ministry to help nursing homes measure up to the ENHS; and (b) when preparing the nursing homes for the ENHS, what are some of the shortfalls that the Ministry finds in the nursing homes.
The new set of nursing home standards was developed by an industry-led workgroup to ensure that our seniors receive consistent quality care. It was finalised in January 2014 after consultations with the wider industry and members of the public.
MOH and the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) have launched several efforts to help nursing homes achieve these standards. Last April, we launched a Guide to ENHS for nursing homes. The Guide explains how the nursing homes could meet these standards and provides examples of processes, tools and templates that nursing homes can adopt. The Guide has been well received.
Over 90% of nursing homes have also participated in AIC’s voluntary baseline assessments to help each nursing home identify particular needs and potential areas for improvements to meet the standards.
From the baseline assessments, some of the areas that need enhancement include existing requirements, such as care planning and emergency preparedness, and new requirements, such as advanced care planning, dignity of care, psychosocial and mental health and organisational excellence.
AIC has designed training to help nursing homes enhance their capabilities in these areas. Funding support is available for nursing homes to send their staff for these training courses and participants can receive up to 90% subsidy on their course fees. In 2014, AIC conducted more than 200 runs of training courses, providing over 4,000 training places in
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support of ENHS. Regional Health Systems (RHS) has also offered training in clinical areas to the nursing homes to help improve their care standards.
The training courses cover the existing requirements that need enhancements. For example, over 40% of nursing homes (or 24 homes) have already completed care planning training with AIC in 2014 and additional runs will be held in 2015 to cater to homes’ needs. In addition, we will place emphasis on areas with new requirements. As these domains have been articulated in the ENHS and are new standards, nursing homes may need more help to develop enhanced systems and processes. To support our nursing homes, AIC is developing additional training programmes with feedback from the sector for these areas. AIC has also started regular learning platforms for homes to share best practices with each other for improvement since February 2014 and about half of all nursing homes are regularly represented at these sessions.
MOH plans to introduce the standards in April 2015, but only enforce this in April 2016 after a one-year grace period. We will continue to work closely with the sector to support nursing homes in meeting the enhanced standards so that our seniors can enjoy better quality care.
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