Nursing Homes Ready for Disaster? ; Telegram Follow-Up: Officials Fear That Some Facilities in Maine Have Outdated Evacuation Plans.
Portland Press Herald › January 29, 2006
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Summary
Dozens of nursing home patients in New Orleans died after they failed to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina. Now emergency officials in Maine worry that outdated or inadequate disaster plans for similar facilities here could put patients at risk.
Some fire departments and emergency management officials are pushing for the plans to be reviewed before a crisis develops. Others have left the issue to individual nursing homes to address, when and if they choose.See the full content of this document
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Nursing Homes Ready for Disaster? ; Telegram Follow-Up: Officials Fear That Some Facilities in Maine Have Outdated Evacuation Plans.
The state licenses nursing homes and conducts annual inspections, but it focuses more on quality of care than disaster planning. Fire drills are emphasized but inspections have failed to catch deficient disaster plans. Although state regulations say those plans must be filed with the state, that requirement is routinely ignored.
There are 144 nursing homes with almost 7,500 paients in Maine.The extent of disaster plann...See the full content of this document
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