clinical focus
Evacuation strategy
Is evacuating residents due to a disaster the right move ?
By Dallas Bastian
Eight residents of an aged care home in Florida died after the site lost air-conditioning in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma , leading many people , including the state ’ s governor , to question why residents were not evacuated .
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Broward County said via a statement that health and administrative staff diligently prepared for the impact of Hurricane Irma .
“ We took part in emergency management preparedness calls with local and state emergency officials , other nursing homes and health regulators .
“ While our centre did not lose power during the storm , it did lose one transformer that powers the airconditioning unit .
“ The centre immediately contacted Florida Power & Light and continued to follow up with them for status updates on when repairs would be made . Outreach was also made to local emergency officials and first responders .”
Following the deaths , the remaining residents were moved to the nearby Memorial Regional Hospital , where the provider ’ s medical and nursing staff continued to care for them .
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Local police confirmed that an investigation is underway into the deaths .
The nursing home said it ’ s cooperating with authorities and regulators to assess what went wrong and to ensure other residents are cared for .
The governor of Florida , Rick Scott , issued a statement urging all assisted living facilities and nursing homes to obtain ample resources , including a generator and the appropriate amount of fuel , to sustain operations and maintain comfortable temperatures for at least 96 hours following a power outage .
According to the latest breakdown on the Irma response efforts released by Scott ’ s office , 35 of the state ’ s nursing homes are using generators , 643 have power , nine have reported being closed and 27 have reported post-storm evacuations .
In a recent interview with Aged Care
Insite , Maureen Kennedy , head of clinical and service governance at RSL Care , discussed some of the key considerations for facilities managing their way through a severe weather event . She said heat management was one of the biggest challenges her team faced when Cyclone Marcia devastated the Capricorn Coast of Queensland in 2015 , affecting RSL Care ’ s services .
The town was without power for four days , and while Kennedy ’ s facility ran on a generator , it was only intended to run essential services . Noting the potential for a critical situation , the provider decided to truck in another generator to power the air-conditioning .
Kennedy said in such situations it ’ s important to never assume a plan will go well , but instead think quickly on your feet and be a problem solver .
The Hollywood Hills aged care home said it had a generator on standby in the event it would be needed to power life safety systems . When the transformer powering the air-conditioner went down , staff set up mobile cooling units and fans to bring the temperature down . “ Our staff continually checked on our residents ’ wellbeing — our most important concern — to ensure they were hydrated and as comfortable as possible ,” the centre said .
Following the news of the deaths , outraged US citizens took to the nursing home ’ s social media sites to condemn the provider and call for the facility to be shut down .
Scott expressed his own outrage via a communiqué , saying he was demanding answers : “ We must understand why this facility delayed calling 911 and evacuating patients and their decision to keep their patients in danger .”
The question as to why residents were not evacuated was also raised by the public on the centre ’ s Facebook page .
But an Australian study , published in the August edition of The Journal of Post- Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine ,