The recent spate of extremely cold weather caused many nursing homes to suffer burst pipes and flooding, leading to the evacuation of residents. In Maryland, four nursing home residents were transferred to area hospitals after a water pipe burst at their facility on Christmas Eve. A break in a line of the sprinkler system at a Kentucky nursing home caused “atrocious amounts” of water to flow into one of the resident wings. Water pipes in a different Kentucky nursing home froze and broke in multiple parts of the facility, causing flooding and extensive damage. Residents were evacuated to other facilities in nearby counties.
A pipe burst at a Tennessee nursing home, resulting in partial ceiling damage and flooding. The pipe reportedly burst over three resident rooms at the facility. Two residents in the affected rooms were sent to the hospital for evaluation. Frigid temperatures caused several pipes to break at another Tennessee nursing home. The local fire department arrived and assisted in moving the affected residents to a different wing. No sooner had they done that than more pipes burst in the kitchen, near power sources. The water and the power to the nursing home had to be turned off, and that caused the evacuation of all the residents to other facilities.
In Alabama, a ruptured pipe left a nursing home without running water. Family members of residents took videos of water dripping from the ceilings and collecting on the floor. An Iowa nursing home suffered a main water line break which flooded the facility. The residents were evacuated in an extensive operation which took most of the night and required help from 16 local agencies.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) State Operations Manual, Appendix Z, requires that each facility use an all-hazards approach when developing or updating their emergency preparedness manual that includes any potential emergency in their geographic region. This includes cold weather preparedness and interruption of services, to include electricity, water, and heat. It should be coordinated with the facility’s local emergency services providers. The time to review your emergency preparedness plan is now and not during an emergency. If an emergency does happen in your facility, it is critical that all are prepared and ready to take appropriate action.
Discussion Points
- Review your Emergency Preparedness Plan. Compare your plan to the requirements from Appendix Z located here. Update your Emergency Preparedness Plan as needed.
- Train all staff on the Emergency Preparedness Plan. Conduct drills for the various disaster response plans to ensure staff competency with each. Document that these trainings and drills occurred and file the signed documents in each employee’s education file.
- Ensure that every unique potential disaster for your geographic region is addressed in the Emergency Preparedness Plan. Audit staff knowledge to ensure that they are aware of their roles during an emergency per your Plan.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
