Table of Content
This resource provides suggested emergency operations plan components for the evacuation of long-term care facilities. Provided in tabular form, it lists evacuation categories in one column and suggested responses and best practices in another. It includes general and evacuation provisions, and physical plant, re-entry, and other considerations for widespread evacuation. This webpage provides links to several resources that support planning for long-term care facilities, including an Emergency Operations Plan template; facility profile sheet; plan evaluation checklist; and template for a letter to inform family members of residents of emergency plans.
The Nursing Home Incident Command System should be considered an essential component of a facility’s Emergency Operations Plan that includes events such as pandemics. Proper utilization of NHICS requires that facilities provide its staff with comprehensive training and exercise of the system. NHICS is a resilient incident management model that will guide a facility on managing a situation, either emergent or non-emergent, in a consistent manner in accordance with concepts promoted by the National Incident Management System .
Plans, Tools, and Templates: Emergency Planning
Individuals needing long-term care may include the elderly, those with chronic health conditions, and individuals requiring short-term rehabilitation. The authors asked nursing homes in North Carolina and South Carolina to measure their preparedness using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services emergency preparedness checklist. In October 2007, a series of wildfires burned over 500,000 acres in Southern California causing 14 nursing homes to evacuate more than 1,200 residents. In response to this event, nursing home administrators and officials from various healthcare and emergency management agencies in San Diego County collaborated to form a model for nursing home emergency preparedness. The authors of this report describe the model, known as the area coordinator system, and discuss its strengths, limitations, and how it could be replicated in other areas of the country.
An incident is defined as an occurrence, either caused by humans or natural phenomenon, which requires response actions to prevent or minimize loss of life or damage to property and/or the environment. While the ICS may be unfamiliar to the long term care community, it has been in existence since the 1970’s and it is utilized by hospitals as the Hospital Incident Command System . This Situation Manual includes exercise materials from Michigan, where exercise participants were given the tools to implement and evaluate the Long Term Care Facility tabletop exercise. The purpose of this exercise was to provide a forum for LTCs and other organization to participate in a facilitated discussion regarding their roles and responsibilities during shelter-in-place and evacuation emergencies. The second Southeastern Nursing Home Hurricane Summit was held in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida on May 21-22, 2007.
Facility Operations
This emergency preparedness checklist is geared towards residents, families, and other interested parties. It includes sections for long-term care ombudsmen, and long-term care residents, their family members, friends, personal caregivers, and guardians. This presentation discusses key emergency preparedness and response-related issues facing long-term care facilities, and some best practices for addressing challenges, including those pertaining to security. This webpage includes links to toolkits and other resources designed to help certain types of healthcare facilities better understand the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Emergency Preparedness Rule. There is both a PDF and Word version for each facility type, and the relevant CMS rules for each facility type are included. Each toolkit includes sample templates and planning worksheets that can help facilities develop compliant plans, policies, and procedures.
Individual providers will need to exercise their independent discretion in how to apply this information and technical assistance to the unique operation of each facility. For that reason, a facility’s use of its professional judgment and due diligence in utilizing the program for infection control and risk management practices is solely within the facility’s control for which it is entirely responsible. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed this checklist to help long-term care and other residential facilities assess and improve their preparedness for responding to pandemic influenza. Long-term care and other residential facilities can use this checklist to self-assess the strengths and weaknesses of current planning efforts.
Plans, Tools, and Templates: Pandemic/Epidemic Influenza Planning
This Situation Manual provided exercise participants in New Jersey with the tools to implement and evaluate the tabletop exercise related to long-term care facilities. The purpose of this exercise was to provide participants with an opportunity to evaluate their long-term care facility’s current medical surge capabilities in response to a severe weather event. Though not updated since the 2016 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Emergency Preparedness Rule was issued, this planning guide provides useful guidance for developing an emergency management plan for a long-term care facility. It is comprised of six sections, 28 appendices, a multitude of job action sheets, and nine sample statements that other states can used when creating or updating their plans.
It provides information about three levels of care, facility type, transport type, and number of residents. This guidance can help disaster planners incorporate ethical considerations into their documents, exercises, and other preparedness activities. A self-service collection of disaster medical, healthcare, and public health preparedness materials, searchable by keywords and functional areas. Originally available in 2010, NHICS was revised again in 2011 by the American Health Care Association Disaster Preparedness Committee to increase its national applicability and relevancy to long-term care health facilities.
Long-term care facilities pose unique challenges during disasters due to the vulnerability and fragility of their residents. The promulgation of the recent CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule was designed in part to increase the mitigation and preparedness activities of long term care facilities to reduce these risks. This webpage includes information on the nursing home incident command system , which can be used by facilities regardless of size or resident care capabilities, and is intended to assist with their emergency planning and response efforts for all hazards. Links to the NHICS guidebook, forms, response guides, Job Action Sheets , and training are included.
This summary document includes lessons learned, promising practices, experiences, research findings, and guidance on disaster preparedness for elders. This study examined the experiences of Veterans Health Administration nursing homes and the evacuation and sheltering of their residents during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Interviews were conducted with nursing home staff and representatives, which revealed that physical harm, psychological distress, cognitive decline, and increased social isolation were areas that deserved special attention for this vulnerable population. This is a continuity of operations plan template for long-term care facilities that may be customized as needed. The authors examined 15 years’ worth of peer-reviewed studies to understand the risk related to mortality among nursing home residents within 6 months after a disaster-related evacuation. More vulnerable patients were over 80 years old, frail, dependent, and male with multiple comorbidities.
The authors examined nursing home preparedness needs by studying the experiences of nursing homes that sheltered evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Specific supply, medication, medical records, staffing, and mental health issues were identified for targeted attention during planning. This guidebook is designed to help long-term care facilities evaluate their preparedness for an evacuation. The Disaster Ready Emergency Preparedness Infection Control program provides education and technical assistance for skilled nursing providers throughout the state.
This document provides the findings of focus groups from five states, in which the emphasis of discussions was disaster preparedness in nursing homes. This workbook provides considerations for nursing home facilities that are developing or updating their evacuation plans. It is intended to be used in any emergency requiring either a full or partial evacuation of the nursing home. It provides situations, assumptions, legal authorities, concept of operations, a list of roles and responsibilities, and checklists for various hazards. The Incident Command System, or ICS, is a uniform management model which allows its users to adopt a standard approach for responding to incidents.
No comments:
Post a Comment