We Create Custom Emergency Preparedness Plans for Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes

Scenario: A hurricane or tornado has touched down in your city, and is headed towards your assisted living facility. Your state has implemented the Incident Command System. Regional emergency response teams have been dispatched, but may not reach your facility in time or are headed to higher-priority locations. Local first responders are spread thin and are unable to direct your actions. Do you evacuate or shelter-in-place? The wrong choice could spell disaster for your residents and staff. What is your action?

Assisted living facilities face greater difficulties than any other business when it comes time to respond to a disaster. Residents are often disabled, suffer from reduced mobility, and may not respond to instruction as expected. Resident to staff ratios often exceed 12:1, with evening shifts sometimes broaching 23:1[1]. Is your limited staff prepared to save your residents from an encroaching disaster? 

Are you prepared?

Unless experts have trained your staff, your facility has been given a custom emergency response plan, and your residents have been drilled and involved in exercises with first responders, you are not prepared. And the costs of being unprepared go far beyond the potential for multi-million dollar criminal negligence suits: they include the death of residents you have been entrusted to protect. Emergency preparedness for assisted living facilities and nursing homes can’t be left to chance.

What we do.

911 Consulting specializes in creating custom emergency response plans for assisted living facilities. We understand the challenges you will face in a crisis, and we know the laws you must follow inside and out. OSHA codes are complex, and best practices are unknown to those outside the emergency management industry. Trust us to prepare you for the worst – if we can get the GE Worldwide Headquarters, the Waldorf Astoria, and ExxonMobil ready for disaster, we can get you ready, too.

Our services include:

• Ensuring your business meets federal regulations: Every organization must meet certain standards, such as those in the OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910 series of documents. These include basic requirements for emergency preparation. Every business must have an emergency action plan, a fire prevention plan, and comply with the state fire code. Many organizations must also comply with industry regulations or local/state laws.
• In person training, drills, and full scale exercises: The only way to lower the risk of casualties or lawsuits is to prepare. The best way to do that is to have us implement your plans. This includes oral training, live drills, tabletop exercises, and full scale exercises. These are the only ways to find out what will go wrong when you least expect it.
• Preparation for fires, natural disasters, and pandemics: A fire, natural disaster, or a pandemic can strike an assisted living facility particularly hard. Evacuation procedures, keeping residents safe during the crisis, and resuming operations if an incident is long-term all require serious preparation.

Extensive information is available online regarding preparing your assisted living facility for an emergency. But understanding the theory behind saving your residents is only a small part of being prepared. Most plans available online are one-size-fits all – they don’t take into account your facility, your location, or the specific needs of your residents.

We give you a truly custom plan. We look at your needs and we work with you, your staff, and you residents to ensure that you’re prepared for any emergency that comes your way. We work extensively at your location, not from several states away. This is the only way to ensure you get the plans and training you need.

Why is this important? Consider the myriad risks that your facility could face, be they natural, technological, or societal:

• Earthquake
• Wildfire
• Hurricane, tornado, torrential rain, or unrelenting snow
• Avalanche
• Landslide
• Infectious diseases
• Food or water-born contamination
• Power-grid failure
• Massive urban fire
• Hazardous materials release
• Transportation incidents
• Communications failure
• Civil disturbance
• Terrorism – including nuclear, chemical, biological, or explosive

Bear in mind that these dangers aren’t limited to the event in particular – the fallout (literal or proverbial) can often be worse than the event itself. Long-lasting damage from natural disasters, pandemics, or terrorism related incidents can shut down help from federal agencies indefinitely and leave you scrambling to resurrect operations.