Do You Maintain a Compliant Fire Safety Plan?

Fire safety is a critical component of any healthcare organization’s overall safety program. As such, healthcare providers are required to develop facility-specific fire and evacuation procedures, provide fire safety training, and conduct regularly scheduled fire drills.

Most facility fire procedures correctly focus on the critical actions to take upon discovery of a fire. These actions are often simplified into an acronym such as RACE (rescue, alarm, contain, evacuate) or something similar. However, the Life Safety Code® requires some very specific information to be included in a healthcare occupancy’s fire safety plan. Review your fire safety plan and fire procedures against these nine (9) required components to ensure they are comprehensive and compliant with Section 19.7.2.2 of the Life Safety Code® (2012 edition) and CMS tag K-711.
  1. Use of Alarms: Upon discovery of a fire, procedures should direct staff to quickly activate the fire alarm system via the closest manual pull station. In addition to building-wide notification, activation of the fire alarm will likely initiate a variety of automatic actions such as door release, HVAC shutdown, and fire department notification.
  2. Transmission of Alarms to the Fire Department: Your fire alarm system most likely maintains some direct connection to ensure the fire department is automatically notified when the alarm is activated. This is commonly accomplished via the use of a central monitoring service. However, there are a handful of other arrangements that lead to the same outcome. Ensure your procedures specifically spell out how alarms are transmitted to the fire department.
  3. Emergency Phone Call to Fire Department: Although the fire alarm system is required to automatically contact the fire department, a direct phone call to the fire department (usually via 911), is an extremely important step. Not only does it serve as a back-up communication, but it allows the facility to provide details regarding the situation directly to emergency personnel. Specific information can be extremely valuable to dispatchers and firefighters and may have a direct impact on the emergency response. Make sure your procedures include a back-up phone call and clarify who is to make the back-up call on all shifts.
  4. Response to Alarms: It is important that procedures clarify who should respond to the fire area when. For example, during normal business hours, there are often additional staff in the building available to respond to alarms. However, in the evening and overnight, it may be necessary for additional clinical staff to report to the fire area to ensure there are enough hands to implement the procedures. Procedures should detail roles for all staff upon activation of the alarm.
  5. Isolation of the Fire: Health care occupancies are specifically designed to contain smoke, thereby limiting its ability to travel throughout the building. Closing doors, and keeping them closed, is a critical step in limiting smoke travel. Staff procedures should clarify their role in closing the door to the fire room along with the remaining doors in the building.
  6. Evacuation of Immediate Area: Quick removal of the occupants of the fire room is essential. Procedures should place emphasis on evacuation of the fire room followed by closure of the fire room door to keep smoke from spreading.
  7. Evacuation of the Smoke Compartment: Extended evacuation beyond the fire room is an important decision to be made and depends on a few factors. Procedures should clarify when it is appropriate to evacuate the remainder of the smoke compartment, order of evacuation, and the evacuation destination. Evacuation floorplans are often a helpful visual reference that clarify smoke barrier boundaries, evacuation direction, and fire department entry.
  8. Preparation of Floors and Building for Evacuation: While the initial point of focus is the immediate fire area, staff should simultaneously be taking action throughout the remainder of the building as well. This includes preparing for possible extended evacuation of the fire floor, floors above or below, or possibly the entire building. Procedures should outline who will determine the need for further evacuation, how it will be communicated, and what the extended evacuation process will entail. This may include vertical evacuation techniques for multi-story buildings.
  9. Extinguishment of Fire: It may be appropriate for staff to extinguish a fire. Procedures should clarify the situations, methods, and supporting equipment available for fire suppression.
Fire drills serve as an opportunity to evaluate staff knowledge and test staff implementation of the fire safety plan.  Fire drills are required to be conducted quarterly on each shift with the drill times and conditions varied. Drills conducted between 6:00am and 9:00pm should include the activation of the building fire alarm system. Otherwise, overnight fire drills are permitted to use a coded announcement instead of audible alarms. It is not the intent of fire drills to excite or disturb residents. Detailed fire drill requirements are found in Section 19.7.1 of the Life Safety Code® (2012 edition) and referenced in CMS tag K-712.
Knowledge of applicable codes and standards is your best tool for ensuring life safety compliance. You can purchase a copy of the Life Safety Code® (NFPA 101) online at www.nfpa.org. The AHCA/NCAL website​ is also a good source for on-going fire safety education, tools, and resources.

Are You Prepared for a Tornado Emergency?

Each year, hundreds of health care facilities across the nation respond to tornado emergencies with limited warning of potentially catastrophic events. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there were nearly 1,200 confirmed tornado reports in 2023. While much of this activity occurs in the South and Midwest, often referred to as Tornado Alley, numerous tornadoes also impacted other locations across the country where tornadic activity is generally considered rare. Locations in California, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were all affected by tornadoes in 2023. In one case, an EF-3 tornado caused significant damage along a 16-mile path in Lewis County, New York, the county’s strongest tornado on record.

https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/Are-You-Prepared-for-a-Tornado-Emergency.aspx

Minimizing the Risk of Workplace Violence

Workplace violence is recognized as a hazard in the health care industry and​ can affect workers, residents, and visitors. Workplace violence includes any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behaviors that occur at the workplace. Taking the following steps can help you minimize the risk for violence in the workplace. These steps are considered best practice and are NOT required.

Read more at https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/Minimizing-the-Risk-of-Workplace-Violence.aspx

Creating a Path to Emergency Preparedness

“Death Toll in Kentucky Floods Rises to 28 as Area Braces for More Rain.” This headline from late July is all too common. Crises—natural disasters, active shooter situations, the pandemic, power grid issues, and more—are increasingly becoming the norm. While long term care facilities must have disaster preparedness plans, it’s time to revisit these and make them flexible enough to address whatever situation comes your way.

Read more at https://www.providermagazine.com/Monthly-Issue/2022/SeptOct/Pages/Creating-a-Path-to-Emergency-Preparedness.aspx

Keep Safety and Compliance in Mind When Decorating for the Holiday

Celebrating the holidays in a healthcare organization can be an uplifting experience for both residents and staff. However, decorating can oftentimes lead to some unintended consequences. Here are some quick tips to help ensure your organization maintains a safe environment that is compliant with the Life Safety Code® this holiday season:
  • ​Combustible decorations are only permitted if they are flame retardant or when they are in limited quantities such that the hazard of fire development and spread is not present.  For example, a handful of holiday cards attached to a door can be considered a limited quantity. A door completely covered with holiday cards could be considered excessive. Section 19.7.5.6 of the 2012 edition of the Life Safety Code® outlines the combustible decorations requirements in detail.
  • ​Live Christmas trees are not permitted. Living trees in a balled condition with their roots protected in soil shall be permitted if they are maintained in a fresh condition and not allowed to become dry.
  • Artificial Christmas trees are only permitted if they are labeled or identified as “flame retardant” or “flame resistive”. There are products that can be applied to artificial trees to meet this requirement.
  • Use only UL listed holiday lights and wiring.
  • Do not visually block egress, exit signage or any fire safety equipment with decorations. This includes fire alarm pull stations, visual fire alarm notification devices and fire extinguishers.
  • Do not hang decorations from sprinkler heads.
  • Do not use flame producing decorations including candles.
  • Do not use extension cords to power decorations.
Finally, monitor decorations that are brought into the facility by residents, families and friends. Ensure anything electric is UL listed, is not heat producing and does not involve candles/flames. Otherwise, enjoy the decorations and the resulting holiday spirit!
Questions? Please contact lifesafety@ahca.org.

Making hospital transitions safer during the pandemic

Care providers can take action to make hospital and emergency room transfers safer for residents during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a group of eldercare experts.

These experts have published a comprehensive guideline on safe and effective transitions that includes the following checklist points (summarized):

  • Medically stable patients who are appropriately isolated should not be transferred to the emergency department. Multidisciplinary teamwork can support providing care in place.
  • Address advance care planning with every patient and family in the context of COVID-19.
  • Carefully weigh the risks and benefits of transferring residents with a febrile respiratory illness to an emergency department. This includes an evaluation of the patient’s current state of health, patient-centered goals, and an assessment of prognosis in the context of COVID-19 illness.
  • Consider “forward triage” when considering patients for care transitions. This involves assessing the resident’s level of acuity. This should involve a conversation with the receiving emergency department physician.
  • Warm hand-offs are critical. Nursing home and emergency department providers need to communicate prior to a transfer and as medical decisions are being made, including the ability of the nursing home to safely accept a returning resident.

Read the full article at https://www.mcknights.com/news/clinical-news/making-hospital-transitions-safer-during-the-pandemic/

Are You Prepared?

The easily recognized Scout Motto is “Be Prepared,” so is your facility? Even though no one wishes for disaster, it is imperative and required that every employee be ready for anything if their care facility is at risk. How long will it take you to get residents sheltered from a tornado? Are there security measures in place for gunfire? Are you ready for when every conceivable step in your plan is trumped by escalating disaster?

Download the eBook: ALWAYS SAFE, NEVER SORRY: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness for Long-Term Care Facilities and find out.

Are YOU Prepared?

November 17, 2017,  from Gero Nurse Prep staff member Anji Heath

The massive fire that occurred at the Barclay Friends Senior Living Community in West Chester, PA this morning serves as another reminder of the importance of having an emergency plan in place. Fortunately, no fatalities have been reported. Though the cause of the blaze has yet to be released, I would speculate that given the low number of casualties and no fatalities reported, this facility got it right and was prepared for such an emergency.

http://6abc.com/massive-inferno-at-west-chester-senior-community/2659822/

I welcome you to refer to the AHCA/NCAL Emergency Preparedness page of their Website.