Big failings found in nursing homes’ disaster plans

Nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans exposed the vulnerability of nursing homes, serious shortcomings in disaster emergency plans persist at facilities in Louisiana and across the United States, government investigators say in a new report to be released today. Response plans, which are required by the government, often lack specific steps such as coordinating with local authorities, notifying relatives, and pinning name tags and medication lists to residents in an evacuation. Nationally, more than 3 million people spent at least some time in a nursing home during 2009, according to the latest available data. Nearly 40% of them, 1.2 million, were in the top 10 disaster-prone states, which include Louisiana. On the surface, things appeared to be in good shape. Ninety-two percent of the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes met federal regulations for emergency planning, while 72% met the standards for emergency training. A different story emerged when inspectors showed up at 24 selected nursing homes and started pulling files and interviewing staff. The specific facilities in Louisiana, California, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas were not identified in the report. All had been affected by disasters; 14 had evacuated and the remainder sheltered in place. A detailed, well-rehearsed emergency plan is a basic requirement for disaster preparedness. But at one home, the emergency plan was in several boxes. At another one, it was on a legal pad. Of the 24 emergency plans, 23 did not describe how to handle a resident’s illness or death during an evacuation. Read the full story by The Associated Press for more details from the report and recommendations here.