Emergency Preparedness in Nursing Homes

DPRN · Apr 23, 2012

Interesting article! I work in a PA personal care home which is part of a nursing facility. The entire facility has an emergency preparedness handbook accessible to all staff. Without looking at it, the topics include staff contact information, disaster preparation, food storage/preparation, water storage, fire drill info, and weather warnings/watch information. Our book gets used by all staff through out the year to answer questions that arise. My personal care home regulations require some of the emergency preparedness issues be intact.

Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B · Apr 24, 2012

One of the major issues besides the lack of realistic evacuation plans for most LTC facilities is the fact that even if one exists it's relying on transportation resources that simpily arnt there. As the article pointed out transportation contracts arnt worth the paper they are printed on when a disaster strikes. That fly by night ambulance company who gave the facility a really good deal barely has the staff and trucks to get their routines done, none the less evacuate the three nursing homes they contract with. Even if you have ten trucks assuming a 30 minute turn around time, meaning your only transporting the evacuee 15 min away it's gonna take 10 hours to empty a 200 bed facility. Evacuation gets easier if you ensure resources by contracting on an emergency baisis only with companies that are not local, for a specific number of trucks AND A WHEELCHAIR BUS or two. Then adopting a NIMS mass causality model of triage, treatment (or packaging in this case) and transport officers to keep track of who goes when and with what they need, you can make things go smoother. An ON SITE physician to handle patent status changes and transport decisions is also invaluable. It take planning but preparedness isn't overly expensive, just time consuming.

Karen0125RN · Apr 24, 2012

Thanks for the info everyone.... keep it coming! This is very helpful!