Kilkenny hospital performs strongly in new HIQA report

The Rehabilitation Unit at St Columba’s Hospital in Thomastown received a generally positive review in a new Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report, avoiding any areas of non-compliance.

Out of the 11 national standards rated, the unit was judged to be compliant with five, substantially compliant in four and partially compliant in two.

Patients who spoke with the inspectors were pleased with the quality of care provided with comments including, “everyone is brilliant” and that staff are “attentive.”

The inspections were carried out on January 29 and 30 of this year and some areas in which strong compliance were observed included the unit’s management of arrangements to support and promote the delivery of high-quality, safe and reliable healthcare services along with its promotion of a culture of kindness, consideration and respect.

St Columba’s was rated as partially compliant in providing a physical environment which supports the delivery of high-quality, safe, reliable care and protects the health and welfare of service users as issues with the facility’s layout were noted.

The unit contained five two-bedded bays and a single room, with the bays divided into three on one side of the entrance and two on the other. The bays were effectively an open-plan area divided by partition walls which didn’t extend to the ceiling.

The single room which was used for isolation purposes, didn’t contain any en suite facilities and inspectors were informed that a shower and toilet was designated to patients who were isolating. However, the unit only had two showers and this reduced the number available for the other nine residents to one.

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The second area of partial compliance was related to St Columba’s protection of service users from the risk of harm associated with the design and delivery of healthcare services.

The inspection found that patients were not routinely screened for multi-drug resistant organisms or Covid-19 on admission to the unit and only if they developed symptoms on admission or afterwards. There were two Covid outbreaks in 2024.

Additionally, the process of clinical handover was taped prior to a shift ending and listened to by the staff coming on duty with no verbal handover taking place. The most up-to-date policy on medication management and administration was also not available in the clinical area.

However, verbal handovers have now been in place since February and a hard copy of Hospital medication policy was made available at ward level shortly after the inspection.

In its conclusion, the report outlined that there were systematic monitoring arrangements for identifying opportunities to continually improve the quality of services provided and that staff and management in the unit made every effort to ensure that patients’ dignity, privacy and autonomy.

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