Florida ALF and Nursing Home Emergency Management Plans

Instructions for Preparing an ALF Emergency Management Plan in Hillsborough County, Florida

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Preparing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan for review and approval in Hillsborough County is not as daunting as it may seem. While preparing the plan itself may take some research and hard work on your part, submitting the plan for review is a straightforward, two-step process:

1) Develop your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan and submit it to the Fire Marshall’s office for review and approval per the instructions provided below. You must submit a Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan that has been approved by the Fire Marshall as an annex to your Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) in order for your CEMP to be approved. To save time, we recommend submitting your Fire Safety Plan to the Fire Marshall first, then working on your CEMP while your Fire Safety Plan is under review.

Note: Your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan differs from your Facility Inspection that is conducted periodically by the Fire Department. Approved Facility Inspection Reports do not satisfy the requirement for a Fire Safety Plan, unless it is specifically noted in the comments section that your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan was also reviewed and approved.

Hillsborough County Emergency Management will accept any of the following three items as evidence that your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan is approved:
1. Pink approval stamp from Tampa Fire Rescue
2. Approval letter from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue
3. Facility Inspection Report that specifically states your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan was reviewed and approved as part of your inspection.

2) Develop your Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) using the template provided below and submit it, along with your approved Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan, to Hillsborough County Emergency Management at 2711 E. Hanna Ave, Tampa, FL 33610.

Generally, if you follow the provided template and answer all of the questions adequately, your plan will be approved. However, here are some of the most common mistakes that will prevent your CEMP from being approved:

1. Lack of an approved Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan as noted above.
2. Incorrect Hurricane Evacuation Zone information for your facility and/or your evacuation site (you can look this up using the link to the right of this page).
3. Plans that are inconsistent with Florida Statutes – for example, you cannot plan to evacuate your residents to a public shelter. Rather, you are required to plan to evacuate your residents to a like facility, and should either plan to evacuate to a private residence or enter a mutual aid agreement with another facility to accept your residents in the event of an evacuation.
4. Failure to include any mutual aid agreements (such as for evacuations or transportation) that are referenced in your plan. If an agreement is referenced in your plan, you must include a signed copy of the agreement as an annex to your emergency management plan.
5. Plans that don’t make sense – for example, you should not plan to evacuate from a facility in Hurricane Evacuation Zone D to a facility in Hurricane Evacuation Zone A.
6. Failure to include maps and/or directions for both a primary and an alternate route to and from your evacuation site, per State requirements.

ALF Fire Safety Plan Template

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As noted above, a required component of your ALF Emergency Management Plan is your Fire Safety/Evacuation Plan. The template provided below will provide you a starting point from which to develop your facility's Fire Safety Plan, and also includes instructions on where to submit your Fire Safety Plan for Review in Hillsbrough County, Florida.

Use this link to download the ALF Fire Safety Plan Template.

ALF Emergency Management Plan Template

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The link below will open a "Fill in the Blank" version of a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan for an Assisted Living Facility that (if completed properly and correctly) will fulfill the minimum requirements of the Florida Statutes and Florida Administrative code pertaining to ALF Emergency Management Plans.

Hillsborough County Emergency Management strongly prefers that you use this template in order to ensure that all ALF Emergency Management Plans are standardized throughout the county. This also streamlines the review process and allows us to review and approve your plan much more quickly.

Use this link to access the Hillsborough County ALF Emergency Management Plan Template.

ALF Emergency Management Plan Reference Material

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The following links provide access to reference material, training aids, and organizations that will assist you in preparing your ALF Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan:

FEMA IS-197 Course: Special Needs Planning Considerations for Service and Support Providers

National Criteria for Evacuations Decision-Making in Nursing Homes

Florida Healthcare Association Emergency Preparedness Resources

Sample ALF Emergency Management Plan

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The following is an example of an ALF Emergency Management Plan that was approved by Hillsborough County Emergency Management.

This document is reprinted with the permission of Victoria Rowe, Administrator, Balfour Circle ALF, and is provide as a reference only. In almost all cases, the information in this plan will not apply to your facility. Thus, do not copy this material. Rather, use it as a benchmark to determine whether your plan is adequate and meets the minimum standards required by the State of Florida.