If your parent is a resident of a nursing home, you’re probably familiar with the nursing home’s policies for visiting them, such as the days, hours, and lengths of acceptable visits, as well as who can visit them. But what happens if a disaster or state of emergency is declared? How, if at all, do these policies change?
Disaster Declaration
North Carolina law provides some guidance for nursing home visitation protocols in the event of a disaster or emergency. An example of a disaster or a state of emergency would be a snowstorm, the COVID-19 pandemic, or any similar event that is a threat to public safety. Issues of public safety might pose risks not only to family members traveling to visit their loved ones but also to nursing home residents should they suffer from compromised immune systems, etc. However, despite these potential risks, North Carolina law does not allow licensed nursing homes to revoke a resident’s right to visitors completely.
North Carolina has special visitation protocols for licensed nursing homes in the event of a disaster or emergency. The first requirement is a disaster declaration (or state of emergency). Issuing a disaster declaration involves several steps. A State of Emergency must be declared, which requires a government body, ranging anywhere from the municipality to the state governor, to state that there is a crisis affecting public safety. Then the Secretary of the North Carolina Department for Public Safety must prepare a damage assessment. The damage assessment is a document completed by state-sponsored emergency management workers that estimates the magnitude and severity of damage caused by the crisis. After reviewing this assessment, the governor may declare a disaster.
Modified Policies
The Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services must coordinate with licensed nursing home operators to establish visitation protocols that will take effect in the event of a disaster or emergency declaration. These guidelines should be in place before the disaster strikes so that current and future nursing home residents may be aware of them when they agree to become residents. To make sure that licensed nursing homes have a baseline disaster visitation policy, the North Carolina General Statutes provide requirements for these special visitation policies. They include:
- Each nursing home resident is allowed to select two pre-approved visitors: a primary visitor, and an alternate visitor. The alternate visitor is contacted if the primary visitor cannot make it to the nursing home. Residents are allowed two visits from either their primary or their alternate visitors per month, for each month that a disaster or state of emergency has altered the nursing home’s regular visitation schedule.
- Before each resident is admitted into the nursing home, he or she must be provided with a copy of the visitation protocols that the nursing home has adopted in the case of a disaster or emergency.
- Disaster or emergency visitation protocols must follow the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines and any conditions or limitations described in the nursing home’s ordinary visitation policy.
If you or someone you know has a parent in a nursing home or is considering becoming a resident in a nursing home, it is important to know how to contact them in case of an emergency. Nursing homes might have different visitation policies, but it is crucial to know your visitation rights when disaster strikes. Schedule an appointment with one of our King Law Offices in western North Carolina or upstate South Carolina at (888)748-KING to review your nursing home’s visitation policies and to ensure that you will have sufficient access to your loved ones when it matters most.
