Organizational readiness in long-term care communities: Findings from a 3-year initiative

In the wake of several large-scale disasters, there has been heightened recognition of the vulnerability of older adults in long-term care (LTC) residences to such events. The PREPARE Continuing Education Program for Long-Term Care is a federally funded disaster readiness initiative designed to address the need for geriatric-specific disaster preparedness training. In the three-year grant period, over 1,000 LTC providers from 50 states participated in train-the-trainer workshops and conference seminars. Those providers have in turn, trained an additional 16,489 providers within their respective organizations.

Evaluation: Three surveys were developed to assess the initial level of preparedness within participating organizations and evaluate the impact of the PREPARE program within these organizations: (1) baseline survey; (2) post-workshop survey; and (3) post-program implementation survey.

Results: An analysis of the data collected thus far yields two sets of findings to be discussed in this presentation: 1) an examination of the baseline surveys reveals overall strengths and weaknesses in organizational readiness in a national sample of 386 nursing homes, and 2) an analysis of the three surveys measuring program impact suggest that the PREPARE program has had a meaningful impact on the level of disaster preparedness among participating organizations in the following areas: disaster plan components, community linkages and collaborations, emergency response exercises.

In addition to providing an overview of these findings, this presentation will include a discussion of the challenges and barriers to improving the ability of LTC staff to effectively prepare for, respond to and recover from a disaster or public health emergency.