Is Your Mother's Long-Term
Residence
Ready For A Disaster?

You've toured, you've sampled the food, you've talked to residents. You're ready to sign. The last thing you're thinking about as you evaluate an assisted living residence or a nursing home is potential disaster. The last thing you're thinking about as you evaluate a long-term residence for your loved one is potential disaster.

As the recent anniversary of Hurricane Katrina reminds us, not every day will be sunny and mild. When the day comes, and it will, that there is some level of "disaster," will the facility you are considering look as efficient and prepared as it does today?

Hurricanes aren't the only potential disaster that a nursing home or assisted living facility could face. There are long power outages in the middle of dangerously cold winters or sizzling hot summers (Queens, NY lost power for days during a serious heat wave two months ago). There are floods in regions that rarely see a drizzle (El Paso, Texas nearly drowned last month). There are tornadoes, there are earthquakes. There is always something.

How is your long-term residential facility prepared to deal with these emergencies? Just as you want to know about their daily living environment, you want to know about their disaster preparedness plan. And that little escape route map posted by the elevator doesn't count.

Make sure you add these questions to your list when you evaluate a senior residence. If your loved one is already a long-term care resident, make sure you ask these questions as soon as you can. If there is a regularly scheduled family meeting, bring these questions to the next one so everyone can hear the answers.

	Does the facility have an emergency backup power system? How long will it provide power, and what parts of the facility will have power?
	How will residents who are using oxygen be provided with oxygen if the concentrators in their rooms are not working? How much emergency oxygen is available in portable cylinders? Are the residents responsible for maintaining their own backup oxygen, or does the facility maintain an inventory? How much?
	In the event of a fire or other need to evacuate the building, where will the residents go if the weather is bad? Frail elderly people cannot stand in a parking lot for hours on a freezing cold night, a 100 degree plus day, or when it is pouring rain.
	If the building is multi-level and the elevators cannot be used, what is the procedure for evacuating physically impaired residents quickly and safely down the stairs?
	If the building must be evacuated quickly, what procedures are in place to insure that no resident wanders away while caregivers are rounding up and helping other residents?
	If there is time to prepare for an evacuation, such as when a hurricane is expected, how and to where will residents be moved?
	What permanent identification will residents wear?
	How will the facility insure that medications and charts move on the same vehicle as the resident so that they do not become separated, as happened last year? Will a trained employee ride with residents on each vehicle to administer medications as necessary?
	Will an emergency food and water supply be available on each vehicle for residents who are being moved?
	How will families be notified that residents are being evacuated?
	How does the facility train their care staff? Routine fire drills are nice, but they are far from enough.
Evaluating The Answers
	Ask your questions when you meet with the Administrator of the facility. Don't rely on the marketing representative. In my experience, some marketing representatives tend to make up answers as they go along.
	Then confirm the Administrator's answers by asking an aide or three what they are assigned to do in the event of a particular emergency. Pick a specific situation, such as a power outage, evacuating without an elevator, or if residents have to be driven away from the facility. If you don't get more or less the same answer from each aide you have cause for concern.
	Finally, ask your questions of employees on different shifts. There will be fewer people working on the deep night shift. How will they manage all their residents with fewer employees if there is a night emergency?

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