Long-Term Care

Nursing home hurricane preparedness falls short

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, August 29, 2006

This is according to an Office of Inspector General study, Nursing Home Emergency Preparedness and Response During Recent Hurricanes. Although the majority of nursing homes satisfied state and federal criteria for evacuation and response during hurricanes, they still fell short during the 2005 hurricane season. The study looked at 20 Gulf State nursing homes and reported that all had hurricane response problems. Issues ranged from poor emergency plans, lack of resources, broken transportation contracts, medication complications, to inadequate staffing, food, and water. The report suggested that CMS implement a standard nursing home emergency evacuation plan.

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