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Focus on fire safety regulation for nursing homes

LTC Liability Monitor, October 13, 2005

A majority of the country's 16,000 registered nursing homes violate federal fire safety standards every year, according to an expansive report issued last week by USA Today. Further, inspectors who come across violations rarely hand out fines or provide those nursing homes with incentives to fix the problem. Four out of five nursing homes that had fatal fire incidents since 2000 received waivers from regulators to continue operating despite problems.

The report and its sources called for stricter laws and tighter sprinkler requirements-legislative topics that have circulated in Congress for years but often stall for lack of finances, USA Today reported. According to the newspaper's state-by-state analysis, only 14 states have sprinkler requirements for all nursing homes. Four states-Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, and West Virginia-top the list of fully sprinkler-equipped SNFs at 100%. Most states fall within the 70-90% range, but some are as low as 39% (New York), 38% (Utah), and 36% (Michigan). Access the full report at http://www.usatoday.com.

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