CALA News & Views | Issue 54 | Impact

Emergency Preparedness

                             

While CALA opposed a statewide generator mandate, we have a long history of being on the forefront of emergency preparedness, and we plan to continue that mission. The year began with the devastating fires in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. CALA worked with DSS to identify which regulations would be helpful to waive so that Assisted Living providers had the flexibility needed to care for residents during these challenging circumstances. DSS provided blanket waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic and as needs were identified, which provided a template to draw from for future emergencies. CALA is grateful for our partnership with DSS and their leadership on these issues. The Legislature introduced several bills aimed at improving emergency preparedness and other measures to help in the aftermath of the wildfires. Two bills that CALA supported are AB 1068 (Bains) and SB 582 (Stern) . AB 1068 would have established a workgroup to create best practices for emergency preparedness for Long-Term Care. Unfortunately, this bill did not move forward, but CALA’s internal workgroup has updated best practices and resources available to CALA members. SB 582 will allow DSS to offer licensing flexibility for RCFEs that experience a total loss from a declared disaster. Should this allowance be necessary, it will be a small convenience towards recovery for a community that has experienced a total loss. After the devastating Northern California fires in 2017, CALA led the charge to strengthen existing emergency preparedness requirements by sponsoring AB 3098 (Friedman) . Since then, CALA has provided members with conference sessions and created a dedicated webpage with useful tools and resources. CALA regularly refreshes this information, building on proven practices highlighted by our emergency preparedness workgroup. CALA is grateful for the perspectives our diverse workgroup members bring and their time and input on this important topic. CALA offered facilitated conversations on the topic at each of our conferences this year led by Glenn Thomas, director of safety & risk management, Continuing Life. Conference attendees appreciated the ideas and suggestions shared for meeting emergency preparedness requirements. Check out CALA’s Emergency Preparedness webpage to access these valuable tools and resources.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS