Læsø care home still has serious patient safety problems

Læsø’s municipal care home continues to have serious problems affecting patient safety, DR reports. A new order from the Danish Patient Safety Authority says medical records were missing important information about residents’ illnesses and medication.

The authority found the gaps during an inspection on 22 September. Critical patient safety problems at the care home had already come to light this summer. Afterward, responsibility for nursing was moved from the care home to the municipality’s home-care service.

Michael Møller Kristensen of the Socialist People’s Party, who chairs Læsø Municipality’s committee for elderly care and health, said he was not surprised by the new order. The first report had been highly critical, he said, and problems of that scale could not be fixed immediately.

He said there had been significant progress in recent months, but that patient safety was not yet where it needed to be. He understood residents’ concerns, adding that a recent inspection of elderly care had found the care itself at the home to be good.

Earlier this year, Læsø Municipality allocated an additional 1.5 million kroner to the care home. The funding has been used in part to hire more nurses and reorganise work to address the most critical problems as quickly as possible.