Hurricane Prep

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS

NATIONAL LONG TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN RESOURCE CENTER 
TO: STATE and LOCAL OMBUDSMEN and INTERESTED OTHERS
FROM: Alice H. Hedt, Center Director

This message is to encourage ombudsmen who work in states that may be hit by the upcoming hurricane to begin preparing for this possible emergency. AoA staff are working with DHHS staffing a Central Command Center Wednesday - Friday.

There are two things for you to consider:

1) Preparations for the safety of the residents in nursing homes and other long term care facilities. We received information from some states that experienced the recent black outs that some assisted living and board and care facilities did not have generators, nor did they have flashlights and other needed emergency supplies.

State and local ombudsmen should be in touch with their Office of Emergency Management to ensure that they have a listing of all long-term care facilities. The companies that provide electricity have priority lists and board and care facilities, assisted living homes, etc. need to be on these lists as well as nursing homes. (FYI, on a national level DHHS has a list of all nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid and are able to get lists by county. However, accurate lists of non nursing homes have been difficult to obtain.) State ombudsmen can check to ensure that there is a procedure in place for obtaining medical information and prescriptions if residents are evacuated from one facility to another location. Local ombudsmen can ask about emergency preparedness when they visit local facilities.

The ORC document "The Role of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman in Nursing Home Closures and Disasters" may be useful (see page 44) in thinking through the kinds of issues that need to be addressed including resident transfer trauma.  

2) State and local ombudsmen are encouraged to prepare to work away from their offices if necessary. Below is a list from Jackie Case, local New York City ombudsman of key items that she thinks local ombudsmen should have access to in case of an emergency based on her work after September 11th. Jackie had to work from home for a long period of time and is an expert on how to keep a local program functioning in difficult times. Please let us know if you have other ideas of how ombudsmen can prepare for these types of emergencies.

Ombudsman Home Emergency Kit

Materials

1. List of nursing homes and other board and care facilities including addresses and phone numbers
2. List of ombudsman volunteers
3. Copy of Nursing Home Regulations and other relevant regulations
4. Copy of Ombudsman training manual
5. Business cards
6. Brochures about Ombudsman programs
7. Action forms
8. Complaint forms with complaint codes
9. List of staff contacts
10. Copies of residents' rights

Phone Numbers:

11. Miscellaneous emergency numbers
12. DOH – area offices
13. Department of Aging contact numbers (state ombudsman work and home number)
13. Complaint numbers
15. Medicaid Contact numbers
16. QIO contact information
17. Hospital complaints
18. Legal Aid Society
19. Legal Services for Seniors