For Immediate Release
April 18, 2012
Contact: Deborah Pacyna
916-441-6400 ext. 226
dpacyna@cahf.org
OIG Report on Nursing Home Preparedness Fails to Highlight Key Facts
SACRAMENTO - A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector
General (OIG) on the preparedness of nursing homes for natural disasters leaves out key facts and makes
broad generalizations based on limited data.
The OIG report, Gaps Continue to Exist in Nursing Home Emergency Preparedness & Response During
Disasters: 2007-2010, led some news organizations to conclude that nursing facilities are “woefully
unprepared,” when, in fact, the OIG examined less than one percent of the nation’s nursing facilities in its
study of seven disaster-prone states.
Specifically, the OIG report found - but failed to highlight - that 92 percent of the nation’s nursing
facilities have the proper plans and procedures in place to prepare for the next emergency.
“While we’ve made tremendous advancements in the area of disaster planning, we can always do a better
job, especially when it comes to sharing resources and securing safe transportation for frail individuals,”
said Jim Gomez, CEO/President of the California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF).
Gomez noted that of the six facilities examined in California during wildfires in 2007 and 2009, no
injuries or fatalities were reported even though three facilities were forced to evacuate more than 400
residents.
“We take disaster planning and preparedness very seriously and have trained more than 2,000 CAHF
members in basic planning and response, Nursing Home Incident Command (NHICS), positive practices
for evacuation and sheltering in place,” said Jocelyn Montgomery, CAHF director of clinical affairs and
head of the association’s disaster preparedness program.
“Preparedness is more than having a plan; it’s about having available resources and community assistance
to implement that plan,” she added.
CAHF also developed a Pandemic Influenza Workbook for Long-Term Care and a Model Respiratory
Protection program after the World Health Organization declared a new strain of the H1N1 influenza
virus a pandemic in 2009. In addition, CAHF has developed a free web-based Disaster Preparedness
Program available at http://www.cahfdisasterprep.com
###
Founded in 1950, the California Association of Health Facilities is a non-profit professional association
representing skilled-nursing facilities and intermediate-care facilities for the developmentally disabled. It is
dedicated to providing quality care for the frail, elderly, developmentally disabled and those with chronic mental
illness. Each year, CAHF members provide short-term rehabilitation, long-term care, end-of-life assistance and
critical habilitative nursing services for 300,000 people. CAHF is the largest provider of continuing education for
long-term care providers in California. For more information, visit www.cahf.org