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Tennessee fire-safety bill signed into law

Hospital Safety Connection, March 24, 2004

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Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen on March 18 signed into law a bill requiring nursing homes to tell prospective residents if the facilities do not have full sprinkler systems, smoke detectors, and smoke alarms, the Associated Press reports.

The law goes into effect July 1. It grew out of two fatal fires at elder care facilities in the last six months; neither home was equipped with sprinkler systems.

In addition to nursing homes, the bill's provisions extend to assisted-living centers and residential homes for the aged. It requires a separate disclosure of the home's fire safety equipment, to be signed and witnessed during the time a contract for residency is finalized. The nursing home must post the information throughout the facility.

Legislation requiring the installation of fire sprinklers at the more than 70 nursing homes without them advanced in the state's General Assembly last week. It would require all multistory facilities to install sprinklers by June 30, 2005, while single-story nursing homes would have until December 31, 2005.

Tennessee law requires all nursing homes built since 1994 to have sprinkler systems, but nursing homes in existence when that requirement was passed were exempt. Both sites where the fatal fires occurred were exempt.

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