| (ii) the process for the facility to notify each applicable
receiving facility or pre-arranged destination of the facility's plan
to evacuate and to verify with the applicable destination that it
is available, ready, and not legally restricted at the time from receiving
the evacuated residents, and can do so safely;
(D) includes the procedure and the staff responsible
for:
(i) notifying HHSC Regulatory Services regional office
for the area in which the facility is located and, in accordance with
subsection (g)(5)(H) of this section, the EMC, immediately after the
EPC or alternate EPC, as applicable, makes a decision to evacuate,
or as soon as feasible thereafter, if it is not safe to do so at the
time of decision;
(ii) ensuring that sufficient facility staff with qualifications
necessary to meet resident needs accompany evacuating residents to
the receiving facility, pre-arranged evacuation destination, or other
destination to which the facility evacuates, and remain with the residents,
providing any necessary care, for the duration of the residents' stay
in the receiving facility or other destination to which the facility
evacuates;
(iii) ensuring that residents and facility staff present
in the building have been evacuated;
(iv) accounting for and tracking the location of residents,
facility staff, and transport vehicles involved in the facility evacuation,
both during and after the facility evacuation, through the time the
residents and facility staff return to the evacuated facility;
(v) accounting for residents absent from the facility
at the time of the evacuation and residents who evacuate on their
own or with a third party, and notifying them that the facility has
been evacuated;
(vi) overseeing the release of resident information
to authorized persons in an emergency to promote continuity of a resident's
care;
(vii) contacting the EMC to find out if it is safe
to return to the geographical area after an evacuation;
(viii) making or obtaining, as appropriate, a comprehensive
determination whether and when it is safe to re-enter and occupy the
facility after an evacuation;
(ix) returning evacuated residents to the facility
and notifying persons listed in subsection (g)(5) of this section
who were not involved in the return of the residents; and
(x) notifying the HHSC Regulatory Services regional
office for the area in which the facility is located immediately after
each instance when some or all residents have returned to the facility
after an evacuation.
(j) Core Function Six: Transportation. A facility's
plan must contain a section for transportation that:
(1) identifies current arrangements for access to a
sufficient number of vehicles to safely evacuate all residents;
(2) identifies facility staff designated during an
evacuation to drive a vehicle owned, leased, or rented by the facility;
notification procedures to ensure designated staff's availability
at the time of an evacuation; and methods for maintaining communication
with vehicles, staff, and drivers transporting facility residents
or staff during evacuation, in accordance with subsection (g)(5)(A)
and (G) of this section;
(3) includes procedures for safely transporting residents,
facility staff, and any other individuals evacuating a facility; and
(4) includes procedures for the safe and secure transport
of, and staff's timely access to, the following resident items needed
during an evacuation: oxygen, medications, records, food, water, equipment,
and supplies.
(k) Core Function Seven: Health and Medical Needs.
A facility's plan must contain a section for health and medical needs
that:
(1) identifies special services that residents use,
such as dialysis, oxygen, or hospice services;
(2) identifies procedures to enable each resident,
notwithstanding an emergency, to continue to receive from the appropriate
provider the services identified under paragraph (1) of this subsection;
and
(3) identifies procedures for the facility to notify
home and community support services agencies and independent health
care professionals that deliver services to residents in the facility
of an evacuation in accordance with subsection (g)(5)(E) of this section.
(l) Core Function Eight: Resource Management. A facility's
plan must contain a section for resource management that:
(1) identifies a plan for identifying, obtaining, transporting,
and storing medications, records, food, water, equipment, and supplies
needed for both residents and evacuating staff during an emergency;
(2) identifies facility staff, by position or function,
who are assigned to access or obtain the items under paragraph (1)
of this subsection and other necessary resources, and to ensure their
delivery to the facility, as needed, or their transport in the event
of an evacuation;
(3) describes the procedure to ensure medications are
secure and maintained at the proper temperature throughout an emergency;
and
(4) describes procedures and safeguards to protect
the confidentiality, security, and integrity of resident records throughout
an emergency and any evacuation of residents.
(m) Receiving Facility. To act as a receiving facility,
as defined in paragraph (a)(7) of this section, a facility's plan
must include procedures for accommodating a temporary emergency placement
of one or more residents from another assisted living facility, only
in an emergency and only if:
(1) the facility does not exceed its licensed capacity,
unless pre-approved in writing by HHSC, and the excess is not more
than 10 percent of the facility's licensed capacity;
(2) the facility ensures that the temporary emergency
placement of one or more residents evacuated from another assisted
living facility does not compromise the health or safety of any evacuated
or facility resident, facility staff, or any other individual;
(3) the facility is able to meet the needs of all evacuated
residents and any other persons it receives on a temporary emergency
basis, in accordance with §553.18(h) of this chapter, while continuing
to meet the needs of its own residents, and of any of its own staff
or other individuals it is sheltering at the facility during an emergency,
in accordance with its plan under subsection (h) of this section;
(4) the facility maintains a log of each additional
individual being housed in the facility that includes the individual's
name, address, and the date of arrival and departure.
(5) the receiving facility ensures that each temporarily
placed resident has at arrival, or as soon after arrival as practicable
and no later than necessary to protect the health of the resident,
each of the following necessary to the resident's continuity of care:
(A) necessary physician orders for care;
(B) medications;
(C) a service plan;
(D) existing advance directives; and
(E) contact information for each legally authorized
representative and designated emergency contact of an evacuated resident,
and a record of any notifications that have already occurred.
(n) Emergency preparedness and response plan training.
The facility must:
(1) provide staff training on the emergency preparedness
plan at least annually;
(2) train a facility staff member on the staff member's
responsibilities under the plan:
(A) prior to the staff member assuming job responsibilities;
and
(B) when a staff member's responsibilities under the
plan change;
(3) conduct at least one unannounced annual drill with
facility staff for severe weather or another emergency identified
by the facility as likely to occur, based on the results of the risk
assessment required by subsection (b) of this section;
(4) offer training, and document, for each, the provision
or refusal of such training, to each resident, legally authorized
representative, if any, and each designated emergency contact, on
procedures under the facility's plan that involve or impact each of
them, respectively; and
(5) document the facility's compliance with each paragraph
of this subsection at the time it is completed.
(o) Self-reported incidents related to a disaster or
emergency.
(1) A facility must report a fire to HHSC as follows:
(A) by calling 1-800-458-9858 immediately after the
fire or as soon as practicable during the course of an extended fire;
and
(B) by submitting a completed HHSC form titled "Fire
Report for Long Term Care Facilities" within 15 calendar days after
the fire.
(2) A facility must report to HHSC a death or serious
injury of a resident, or threat to resident health or safety, resulting
from an emergency or disaster as follows:
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