Preparing Long-Term Care for New CMS Rules

In November 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) passed a new emergency preparedness rule for long-term care (LTC) facilities. The new rule mandates that by November 2017, certain health care facility types must now meet specific emergency preparedness requirements to retain Medicare and Medicaid funding. 

To help Indiana's long term care facilities prepare for disaster, MESH has partnered with the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County (HHC) Long Term Care Division to provide workshops on five components of emergency planning.  MESH recently delivered the first in a series of workshops to HHC’s facilities managed by American Senior Communities (ASC). 

Kara Solomon presenting on Natural Hazard Assessment

The first workshop topic in the series focuses on developing facility-specific Hazard Vulnerability Assessments (HVAs). HVAs are the cornerstone of emergency planning and represent the confluence of experience, data, and forecasting. These documents help facilities determine the most effective use of time and resources to plan for emergencies. Leaders from each HHC/ASC facility came together, collaborated with other HHC/ASC facilities in their districts, and created their HVAs under the guidance of MESH’s Kara Solomon, MS. Solomon developed and customized the experience specifically for long-term care facilities and the unique challenges they face. HHC/ASC facility leaders were introduced to potential collaborators and partners in their districts, were exposed to the concepts of emergency management, and were shown a new way of thinking about how hazards can affect their day-to-day operations. Each facility also received a toolkit containing county and facility-level data and 12 customized maps to help determine on which hazards each facility should focus its preparedness activities.

Through the partnership with HHC, MESH was able to reach 78 long-term care facilities and 4 assisted living facilities across Indiana. MESH would like to thank Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County and American Senior Communities for their support, and all the facility participants for their engagement and readiness in taking this important step in emergency preparedness.

Stay tuned for further updates on the CMS workshop series! To find out more about the services MESH offers, please contact us using the form on the Education/Trainings page.

Map of Earthquake data helps participants make informed decisions on their HVAs.