National Citizens' Coalition for
NURSING HOME REFORM |
William F. Benson, President
Donna R. Lenhoff, Esq., Executive Director
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1424 16th Street, NW, Suite 202
Washington, DC 20036-2211 |
Phone: 202-332-2275
FAX: 202-332-2949
http://nursinghomeaction.org |
News Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2003 |
Contact: Deborah Mitchell
Communications Director |
NCCNHR Urges Congress to Investigate Fire Safety Protections in Nation’s Nursing Homes
Fire Deaths at Nashville Nursing Home a “Preventable Tragedy”
WASHINGTON — The National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) is urging Congress to call hearings examining the reasons fires have killed or seriously injured dozens of nursing home residents and workers in this country this year.
"Friday’s fire in Nashville is an urgent reminder that action must be taken to ensure that these preventable tragedies do not continue to claim the lives of America’s most vulnerable health care consumers," said NCCNHR Executive Director Donna Lenhoff.
NCCNHR believes that federal policy contributed to these deaths and injuries. In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) adopted new Life Safety Code regulations that permit older buildings to operate without an automatic sprinkler system. Only weeks later, more than a dozen residents died and more than 40 residents and workers were injured in nursing home fires in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Like the Nashville facility, they were older buildings that did not require sprinklers to comply with federal regulations
"Nursing home residents suffer physical disabilities and cognitive impairments that prevent them from running to safety from a burning building," Lenhoff said.
"The National Fire Protection Association has long maintained that automatic sprinkler systems are the most important life safety system installed in health care facilities, including nursing homes. Yet its own code – the basis in law for the federal regulations – does not require the oldest and least safe buildings to have these life-saving systems."
Thursday’s deadly fire at NHC Nashville HealthCare Center killed eight residents. Forty-eight survivors of the fire remained in four Nashville hospitals Sunday night, including nine in critical condition, the Associated Press reported. The nursing home, which housed 116 residents and was built in the 1960’s, apparently was in compliance with both state and federal regulations that require sprinkler systems in older facilities only if the buildings undergo extensive renovations.
"American nursing homes can no longer be bound by an outdated, privately developed code that has shown time and again it cannot protect those who cannot protect themselves," Lenhoff said. "It is time for Congress and state legislatures to act to stop these unnecessary, terrible deaths.
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