Emergency Preparedness
- Emergency Planning Checklists
- Resources for Ombudsman/Advocates
- Ombudsman Activities
- Information from Other States
Emergency Planning Checklists for
Developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), these checklists are designed to help individuals or organizations be better equipped for handling emergency situations when they arise by identifying how they can prepare in advance and steps to take once an emergency situation occurs. The checklists should be used as part of training programs and reviewed regularly.
- People living in long-term care facilities, their families and ombudsmen
- Long-term care providers
- People with medical needs living at home
Resources for Ombudsmen/Advocates
Emergency Preparedness: Questions Consumers Should Ask
This National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care fact sheet is intended to provide consumers with information related to emergency planning. A nursing home, assisted living, or other long-term care facility should have a comprehensive emergency. Consumers – including residents and their families - should inquire about the facility’s emergency preparedness and evacuation plans.
Ombudsman Home Emergency Contacts List and Information (shared by Jackie Case, former New York City Ombudsman, 2001)
Following the 9/11/01 attacks, former New York City Ombudsman Jackie Case shared that the ombudsmen (both staff ombudsmen and volunteers) in her area always kept certain information with them at all times in the event of an emergency. As a result, after the attacks, the ombudsmen were able to continue their work despite not having access to their offices and files.
Ombudsman Role in Nursing Home Closures and Natural Disasters
This Ombudsman Resource Center Document (2000) includes a tool kit for local ombudsman response and information on transfer trauma.
U.S. DHHS: "Help is on the line."
This useful tool and poster on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website provides contact information for federal programs, including mental health services, and pull down lists with contact numbers for state administered programs TANF, Medicaid and SCHIP. See instructions on how to customize this poster with local contact information.
Ombudsman Activities
Testimony of Maria Greene, Director of the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services, before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Preparing Early, Acting Quickly: Meeting the Needs of Older Americans During a Disaster, October 5, 2005.
Georgia LTCO Activities to Assist Displaced Persons
This document briefly explains the steps that the Ombudsman Program took to assist nursing home residents displaced by Hurricanes in the Fall of 2005.
Information from Other States
In 2009, the Louisiana Ombudsman Program released a video designed to promote discussion around leadership and emergency preparedness practices, using the story of a nursing home staff during Hurricane Katrina, who continued to care for their residents and themselves during that uncertain time. The video, The Big Uneasy: Katrina’s Unsung Heroes, can be online. A facilitator’s guide is also available. The Louisiana Ombudsman Program received a grant from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (using Civil Money Penalties) to fund this project.
Oklahoma Facility Emergency Action Plan - The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management in collaboration with the Department of Health developed this model emergency action plan for long-term care facilities. This plan is designed as a resource tool to assist in the development and implementation of an emergency action plan. Also see Oklahoma's Supplement to the Emergency Action Plan for Long-Term Care Facilities, developed by the Oklahoma State Department of Health Protective Health Services Long-Term Care.
Note from the Michigan State LTC Ombudsman describing how they aided Hurricane Katrina victims.
Advice from a local ombudsman in Youngstown, OH, describing how they got financial assistance to replace residents' personal effects lost or destroyed in a flood a few years ago.
The Florida Ombudsman Program created a Hurricane Assessment and Relief form that they use in hurricane relief, which they are currently sharing with Gulf States.