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Escambia County
Healthcare Facility Disaster Plan Development and Review
In 1995, House Bill 911 was signed into legislation requiring all health care facilities to have comprehensive emergency management plans (CEMP) developed by each facility and then reviewed by the local emergency management office for compliance to the specific state criteria. The purpose of this bill was designed to reinforce the concept that healthcare facilities, as part of doing business, are responsible for their own residents/clientele not only during normal business operations, but also during emergency situations. Large-scale and local emergencies can tax local government resources quickly, and preparing healthcare facilities to work through emergencies in times of need will protect lives and property and allow healthcare facilities to continue to provide and take the responsibility for the services their clients have paid for and come to expect in emergency situations.
Disaster plans are to be developed by each individual facility that addresses all the required criteria found in the State’s criteria checklists and the appropriate requirements found in Florida Statute and the Florida Administrative Code. The criteria checklists are provided as links on this website. Each year, disaster plans must be submitted, reviewed, and approved by the Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management, for compliance in addressing those criteria. For those companies that have multiple facilities found in several different counties, each facility must submit a disaster plan to their respective county emergency management office.
Florida Case Law has indicated that facility disaster plans submitted to our office become public record, with the exception of the evacuation plan section. All plan COPIES submitted to our office will be kept on file in our office. We will not be the keeper of your facilities only copy of a disaster plan. Please submit a COPY of your disaster plan for our review and records and have as many copies of the plan in your facility as necessary to effectively be able to reference and implement the plan as required. Once one copy of the plan is approved and on file in our office, annual re-certifications to the plan will still be required, though each facility will only be required to submit at a minimum, the required annually updated information as indicated in the state criteria and any other information that has been updated in the plan by the facility. The annually updated information submitted will be reviewed for compliance and included in the disaster plan copy maintained in our office, at which time the annual letter of compliance or denial will be provided.
Each month the County Division of Emergency Management is required to report to various agencies of the disaster plans submitted and reviewed, and also must provide those agencies the opportunity to review the disaster plans at their discretion. The agencies we report to each month are; The Agency for Health Care Administration, The Department of Elder Affairs, The Department of Health, The Department of Community Affairs, and The American Red Cross.
Any changes in the criteria, reporting processes, or any additional criteria requirements will be at the discretion of the State Agencies and Florida Legislature. The interpretations of what meets the required criteria found in the disaster plans will be at the discretion of the local emergency management office.
The Fire Plan section of your disaster plan, must be reviewed by the appropriate jurisdictional Fire Department. Emergency Management is not authorized to review those fire plan sections. The healthcare facility may have the fire plan reviewed before, simultaneously, or after the disaster plan review done by the Division of Emergency Management. If a fire plan review has not been completed and approved at the time of the disaster plan review, an approval of the disaster plan, contingent upon the approval of the fire plan, may be provided to the facility. The facility may submit the disaster and fire plans as follows:
Fire plans should be submitted for review to:
In the County:
Chief Ken Perkins
Escambia County Fire-Rescue Department
6575 North “W” Street
Pensacola, Florida 32505
Attention: Roy Foley, Fire Inspector
850-471-6400
In the City:
Chief Frank Edwards
City of Pensacola
400 East Cervantes Street
Pensacola, Florida 32501
850-436-5200
Disaster plans may be submitted for review to:
John Dosh, Chief
Division of Emergency Management
Department of Public Safety
6575 North “W” Street
Pensacola, Florida 32505
850-471-6400
Fees for the disaster review process are allowed to be charged at the discretion of the County Emergency Management Office, to the maximum amounts identified in F.A.C. Chapter 9G-20. However, at the present time, Escambia County has decided not to charge for this service. As more facilities open in Escambia County, and the time required to review the disaster plans grows, a fee may be implemented in the future.
Currently, the facilities that are required by Florida Statute (F.S.) and Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.) to develop and submit a disaster for review are as follows:
- Adult Day Care Facilities-F.S. 400.562 and F.A.C. 58A-6.011 (10).
- Hospitals-F.S. 395.1055 (1)(c) and F.A.C. 59A-3.078
- Ambulatory Surgical Centers-F.S. 395.1055 (1)(c) and F.A.C. 59A-5.015.
- Assisted Living Facilities-F.S. 400.441 (1)(b) and F.A.C. 58A-5.024(1)(j).
- Nursing Homes-F.S. 400.23 (2)(g) and F.A.C. 59A-4.126
- Intermediate Care Facility for the Developmentally Disabled-F.S. 393.067 (9)
Additional Facility Requirements:
As of October 1, 2001, home heath agencies will be required to develop an emergency management (disaster) plan. The local health department will be the responsible reviewing agency. If a home health agency has a facility in more than one county, their plans will be sent to the State Department of Health. The County Emergency Management office has no authority for those plan reviews.
Disaster plan submissions from home healthcare facilities and Hospice facilities should be coordinated with their local health department office:
Escambia County Department of Health
1295 West Fairfield Drive
Pensacola, Florida 32501
850-595-6500
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