Hurricane & Disaster Preparedness for Long Term Care Facilities: FMHI Receives Funding to Promote Quality of Care and Enhance Resident Safety During Future Hurricane Seasons

Congratulations to FMHI’s Lisa Brown, Ph.D. , who along with Kathryn Hyer, Ph.D. in the School of Aging Studies, will serve as co-PI of the newly funded project, Hurricane and Disaster Preparedness for Long Term Care Facilities. Funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation and Florida Healthcare Education & Development Foundation Inc., the project is designed to improve nursing home disaster preparedness, response and recovery, as well as change the behavior of two target audiences: (1) nursing home administrators and staff, who need materials to assist them with better disaster preparedness and opportunities for training, and (2) state and local emergency responders, who need to better recognize and adequately respond to the needs of nursing homes during disasters.

“We believe that our work will promote quality of care and enhance resident safety during future hurricane seasons. This is an important first step in developing a model that has the potential to be emulated nationally for other types of disasters,” said Lisa Brown.

The products developed will initially benefit nursing homes as well as state and local emergency responders within Florida and the other southern coastal states. They will also become a legacy set of products upon which other states can build to enhance their nursing home disaster preparedness.

The project will also include the planning and convening of representatives from the nursing home associations in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Florida as well as the Directors of Emergency Operations from these States as the core planning group to demonstrate and test the products developed: the new Florida Health Care Association Disaster Planning Guide and the nursing home disaster training exercises. The core planning group will be convened in a Hurricane Summit in the spring of 2007. Summit participants will identify remaining gaps between nursing homes and Emergency Operations Centers and feedback will be incorporated into the products following the Summit.

For additional information, contact Lisa Brown at 813-974-0098.