Lawmakers Push for Nursing Home Sprinklers

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer

December 13, 2005, 5:20 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers pushing for sprinkler systems in every nursing home say a fire that killed two Michigan residents and injured dozens more helps prove their point.

The fire in Michigan occurred Monday, four days after lawmakers introduced a bill that would fund sprinkler systems for older nursing homes through loans and grants. Overall, the bill calls for setting aside $450 million for low-interest loans and $10 million for grants.

About one in every five nursing homes nationwide lacks an automatic sprinkler system, an industry survey shows.

The fire in the Michigan nursing home started in a room where patients were sleeping. While the nursing home had some sprinklers, they were not located in the residents' rooms, according to the Michigan State Police. The home did have fire alarms that sounded.

"Unfortunately, it's tragedies of this nature that bring to the forefront the necessity for this," Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said of his bill.

Larson's bill has bipartisan support; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is the lead co-sponsor. Among the other supporters is Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who represents the township where Monday's fire occurred.

Stupak said he signed onto the bill because Larson convinced him that nursing homes with sprinkler systems save lives, and he believes the grant program will make the renovations affordable.

Currently, federal regulations require that newly constructed nursing homes or those undergoing major renovations contain sprinkler systems. But states are free to enact more stringent requirements. Fourteen now require that nursing homes have sprinkler systems to operate, according to the American Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing homes that supports Larson's bill.

Mary Kahn, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is surveying all nursing homes nationally to determine exactly how many have sprinkler systems. She said the agency also is reviewing a recommendation from the National Fire Protection Association that all nursing homes have sprinkler systems. The association recommends standards that government entities routinely adopt for their building codes.

Larson got involved in the nursing home issue after a fire in his home state killed 16 residents. Six months later, in September 2003, a fire killed 15 patients in Nashville, Tenn. Neither nursing home had an automatic sprinkler system.

In a June 2004 report, the Government Accountability Office found that "the substantial loss of life in the Hartford and Nashville fires could have been reduced or eliminated by the presence of properly functioning automatic sprinkler systems." The same report found that federal oversight of nursing home compliance with fire safety standards is inadequate.

According to a survey conducted by the American Health Care Association, the states with the lowest percentage of "fully sprinklered" nursing homes include: Michigan, 27 percent; South Dakota, 31 percent; Minnesota, 48 percent; Iowa, 55 percent, and New York, 56 percent.