Food Safety Control in residential aged care

Food Safety Control – Cooling and Reheating Meals

 

With the introduction of the Food Act 2014 and the requirement for most aged care facilities to have registered their food control plan (FCP) by March 2018, I thought I would write this article on a common kitchen practice that will require review.

FCP’s are included in the policy and procedure documentation provided by HCSL specifically designed for residential care facilities.

In many facilities the main meal is served in the middle of the day and the tea meal served at night.  The main cook of the day will prepare the tea meal earlier in the afternoon, and then finish his or her shift.  The tea meal will be reheated by the afternoon staff and served to the residents.

The process of cooking, cooling and reheating requires careful control of the food safety risk.  Many tea options are protein or carbohydrate based; macaroni cheese, egg dishes, savoury mince, chicken options – all of which are high risk foods for bacteria growth.

Foods need to be cooled quickly to avoid time and temperature abuse, which may allow bacteria growth.  The guidelines state that when cooling hot cooked foods, the food must cool to at least 21° within the first two hours, and then cool to below 5° in four more hours.  Overall, the food must be out of the danger zone (between 5°C and 60°C) within six hours.

A functioning chiller should allow cooked foods to cool within this timeframe.  Using domestic fridges that are overcrowded, may mean the cooling guidelines are not met.  Using shallow dishes rather than large deep dishes will also allow foods to cool faster.

The food control plan will specify the process the site kitchen must follow with regards to cooling of cooked food.  Temperatures during cooling will need to be checked and recorded to ensure the time / temperature targets are met.

Prior to serving, the food must be reheated to above 75°C.

Some sites choose to hold the prepared food hot until service.  Food must be held hot at a temperature of at least 60°C, usually in a bain-marie or oven at 70°C.  Any food held below 60°C for more than 2 hours, must be thrown out.  Note that holding foods hot for this period of time may affect the food quality.

Main Points:

  • Food safety risk with cooling and reheating foods must be managed with FCP
  • Cool cooked food to below 21°C in 2 hours and below 5°C in 4 hours
  • Reheat foods to above 75°C before service
  • Hold hot prepared foods at 60°C or more
  • Document food temperatures and any corrective action
  • Review corrective action implementation to ensure they have been effective

 

Article contributed by:

Liz Beaglehole

NZ Registered Dietitian

Canterbury Dietitians

Email: liz@canterburydietitians.co.nz

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Webinar – Omicron Preparedness for New Zealand Aged Residential Care

For those who were unable to join: On Monday 31st of January, HCSL hosted a free webinar presented by both Gillian Robinson of HCSL and Anna Blackwell Owner Operator of Cook St Nursing care, in which they talked about preparedness for the possible Omicron outbreak in aged care across New Zealand and Anna spoke about how she responded when a staff member had a positive RAT test. They were also joined by Rhonda Sherriff (Clinical Advisor for NZACA and fellow NLG member) Followed by an opportunity for people to ask questions.

Below we have a video of the Webinar, please view and share with whoever you feel it may be of help to. 

Gillian, Anna and Rhonda are on the NZACA Nursing Leadership Group and would like to share their knowledge with everyone who is facing this challenge ahead in the ARC sector

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NZ nursing leadership
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The coming of age: Aged residential care nursing in Aotearoa New Zealand in the times of COVID-19

The Nursing Leadership Group (NLG) is the recognised voice of aged care nursing. The following article written by the NLG which includes HCSL’s very own Director, Gillian Robinson BN, RN has been published in the Nursing Praxis – Journal of Professional Nursing Special Issue: Nursing response to COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand

The coming of age: Aged residential care nursing in Aotearoa New Zealand in the times of COVID-19

For years aged care nursing has been largely overlooked and marginalised from mainstream healthcare. COVID-19 brought both aged residential care and nursing into sharp focus for Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper provides a commentary on the work of executive nurses within the Nursing Leadership Group of the New Zealand Aged Care Association as COVID-19 spread into some ARC facilities in early 2020 and threatened the health and wellbeing of many residents and nurses. The group influenced the agenda and implementation of policies for Aged Residential Care and brought the voice of nursing and residents of aged care to the forefront at national and regional levels.

 

CLICK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL ARTICLE.


Aged residential care nursing in Aotearoa

Frances Hughes, PhD, RN, Clinical Director, Oceania, Auckland
Anna Blackwell , PGDip, RN, Nursing Director/Owner, Cook Street Nursing Care Centre, Palmerston North
Tanya Bish, MN(Hons), BCom, RN, Clinical Director, Metlife Care, Auckland
Cheyne Chalmers, MMgt, RN, Chief Operating Officer, Ryman Healthcare, Christchurch
Katherine Foulkes, PGDip, RN, Clinical Services Director, Bupa, Auckland
Lynda Irvine, RN, Head of Clinical Services, Summerset Group Holdings Ltd, Auckland
Gillian Robinson, BN, RN, Director, Health Care Compliance Solutions Ltd, Christchurch
Rhonda Sherriff, RN, Managing Director, Chatswood Retirement Village, Christchurch
Virginia Sisson, PGCert, RN, Operations Manager, The Selwyn Foundation, Auckland

Reference:  Hughes, F. A., Blackwell, A., Bish, T., Chalmers, C., Foulkes, K., Irvine, L., Robinson, G., Sherriff, R., & Sisson, V. (2021).  The coming of age: Aged residential care nursing in Aotearoa New Zealand in the times of COVID-19. Nursing Praxis in Aotearoa New Zealand, 37(3), 25-29.

 

 

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merry christmas HCSL
 by hcsl

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We’ve reached the end of the year!

 

Thank you!

For giving us another fantastic and very busy year. We are proud to

have you as part of our community.

 
Your loyalty and feedback have powered meaningful discussions, as well as countless

improvements and additions to how our software can work best for all of our clients.

For that, we really appreciate your input. 

 

To the many new clients who have joined us this year,

we are so excited to have you on board and we look forward to what the

next year has to bring. 

 

In 2022

We have some exciting new updates and features coming to the

HCSL software, we are looking forward to showing you all when the time comes. 

 

 

 

We are officially closing the office on

23rd December and will be returning on 10th January.

 

We will continue to provide on-call support. 

For all other enquires CONTACT US and we will respond on our return.

 

 

We wish you all the best as we head into the Christmas and New Year break.

Take care of yourselves, your family and your friends and enjoy the summer.

 

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End Of Life Act HCSL
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End of Life Choice Act implementation – 7th Nov 2021

End Of Life Choice Act HCSL

As you will be aware, assisted dying will be legally available in New Zealand from November 7 when the End-of-Life Choice Act 2019 comes into effect.

The introduction of assisted dying means that a person with a terminal illness who meets the eligibility criteria can request medication to relieve their suffering and end their life.

The Act sets out the legal framework and a high-level process for accessing assisted dying, including strict eligibility criteria and safeguards.

Assisted dying is not a replacement for palliative care or health care services more generally. It provides another option for people with a terminal illness in certain circumstances.

Assisted dying remains illegal until 7 November 2021.  The Ministry of Health will be responsible for the Act and has an implementation programme underway to implement the assisted dying service.

 

This may impact hospitals, care facilities and retirement villages across the country in an entirely new way, so we at Healthcare Compliance Solutions Ltd have been following the Ministry of Health’s guidance along the way, to ensure our policies and procedures help our new and existing clients through the process, as best as possible.


If you would like to learn more about how Healthcare Compliance Solutions can help you and your orgnisation.

Contact Us
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Testimonial – Alexander House

Alexander Rest Home

“HCSL has been incredibly easy to navigate since we went live on the system on the 1st of October. Our team have people with varying levels of technology literacy and the ease of this system has meant that staff are more confident to use technology and see how it can help to improve time management by not having to double or triple up on written documentation.”

Manager

Alexander House Rest Home

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Testimonial – Rhonda Sherriff

Rhonda Sherrif

I am very happy to endorse your system as the information is invaluable for CNMs to analyse the data/information and make informed decisions on best practice and innovation to decrease hazards, improve outcomes, and mitigating factors for resident welfare. I’m pleased you are delving into the data to the level you are, as it’s time saving for sites in many respects, and so easy to dice and slice the information to get the trends.

CNM’s used to spend hours just writing up the collective information before the analysis, so this system is hugely time saving.

Rhonda Sherriff

Clinical Advisor for NZ Aged Care Association

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Testimonial – Bethsaida Retirement Village

Tracy

We are very pleased to have recently been granted 4 year MOH Certification! No corrective actions and three Continuous Improvements.

This follows on from a fully attained Partial Provisional Audit that was required prior to opening our two new wings earlier this year with no corrective actions.

Make no mistake! HCSL policies, software and support have played a major part in these accomplishments. The HCSL software we use means we have easy access to information in real time.

I started working with Gillian of HCSL shortly after I took on the role of Facility Nurse Manager at Bethsaida Retirement Village six years ago. The facility was not using Healthcare Compliance Solutions policies at the time and perhaps this was reflected in the previous audit results.

Gillian is always responsive to emails and phone calls which is critical when timely advice is required.

The HCSL regular newsletters are interesting with relevant and up to date information on issues affecting aged care.

Gillian is a lovely person to deal with. She is thoughtful, professional, pragmatic and I have always found her to be keen to help, with practical advice on any issues that might arise in the management of a retirement facility.

I thoroughly recommend HCSL to all aged care facilities.

Tracy Holdaway (RN BN)

Facility Nurse Manager

Bethsaida Retirement Village

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ACA Workshop HCSL
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Workshops for Managers in Aged Care

The New Zealand Aged Care Association Education Trust is planning the next series workshops with a focus on the revised Health and Disability Sector Standards 2021.

The standards will be mandated and implemented from February 2022.

There are significant changes to these standards and compliance will be a challenge for many facilities.

 

Gillian Robinson.

Our very own Gillian Robinson, Director Healthcare Compliance Ltd and Nursing Leadership Group member will be keynote presenter and will discuss how you can adjust policies and processes on your site to meet the new and revised standards.  Her presentation will also cover how you implement the necessary standards and what education staff will require to meet the standards. This will include governance and operational challenges.

 

 

Rhonda Sheriff, NZACA Clinical Advisor will present on Managing current staffing challenges that include staff shortages in ARC. With the borders closed, immigration challenges, pay anomalies and increasing workloads, now more than ever we are facing staffing difficulties in our sector. Let’s identify strategies that help mitigate risk in our sector and ensure safe care delivery to residents.  

 

Rhonda Sherrif

Rhonda Sherrif

The workshops are planned for the following dates:

Tauranga – Wednesday, 24 November 2021 – Cubro Head Office

Dunedin – Monday, 29 November 2021 – The Forsyth Barr Stadium

Christchurch – Tuesday, 30 November 2021 – Tait Technology Centre

Wellington – Monday, 6 December 2021 – Te Rauparaha Arena

                           CLICK HERE for more info.

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