“Therefore, new residents need to be
educated about communal living in a three- story building with fire sprinklers and eleva- tors,” Williams said. “It seems simple but what people do when they burn toast or eggs in a senior community can fill a book and as you can imagine is often the wrong thing to do.” Donald Breneman, vice president of risk
management and business operations for Juniper Communities, said regular assess- ments are crucial to keep up with changing conditions and updated threats. “Annual hazard assessments are essential
in senior living operations, and these should not be perfunctory but instead be shared with quality management teams which in- clude external vendors when possible to as- sist in high-level identification and resource support,” he said. “Juniper completes these in electronic format and shares them with team members as well as sister communities which again can be a valuable exercise for planning. Having these in a digital format allows a more comprehensive review of evolving needs.” The second part of an all-hazards plan is
having an incident command system (ICS) to manage an emergency, Szpytek said. An ICS is a standardized approach to the control and coordination of emergency re- sponses. It is a flexible mode that focuses on managing by objectives, he said. With an ICS as an emergency manage-
ment model, Szpytek said senior living op- erators can be prepared to adapt to emer- gencies of all kinds. “Once you identify the threats and perils and then have a system to manage them, it doesn’t really matter what the specific circumstances are,” he said. Breneman said that no matter how thor-
oughly every potential hazard and consid- eration is evaluated for emergency planning and preparedness “when an actual crisis un- folds not all the planning is executable for any number of reasons and realities.” “No crisis scenario is ever the same,” he
said. For example, a Juniper community had
multiple contracts related to transportation readiness, but road closures during an emer- gency event made those resources unavail- able “and furthermore what was provided was not as agreed to for transportation
needs specific to this emergency.” Fortu- nately, Juniper found support from other resources, including other senior care com- munities – even direct competitors – who stepped in to provide assistance. “I think itʼs so important not to provide
absolutes in emergency planning because it's simply not the reality and the fact is that in a time of crisis the community will need to rely upon what is immediately or most reasonably available,” Breneman said. Cindy Baier, president and CEO of
Brookdale Senior Living, said relationships can play a vital role when emergencies strike. For instance, Brookdale often is able to temporarily relocate residents to another Brookdale community in the event of an evacuation, but sometimes needs to lever- age relationships with hotels to secure rooms for residents and supporting staff. “Our relationships with our vendors
across the country help our communities acquire necessary equipment and supplies in a time of emergency,” Baier said. “For example, contracts with bus ven-
dors help Brookdale gain access to large commercial buses for evacuations and our relationships with pharmacy vendors help establish action plans to help provide medi- cations as needed. And our relationships with our restoration vendors help damage recovery to occur promptly so that commu- nity life resumes as quickly as possible. And those same relationships help facilitate ac- cess to food and supply deliveries just before and promptly after an emergency.”
technology's central role 2
Emergency planning and preparation often encompasses resident security efforts. Those have evolved in recent years, particularly during the pandemic when new security ef- forts were implemented. Williams said Fellowship Square was
required to restrict access to its apartment buildings during COVID to help control the spread of the virus. The community’s buildings are built like hotels, so Fellowship
JULY/AUGUST 2023
ARGENTUM.ORG 11
CINDY BAIER President and CEO Brookdale Senior Living
“Our relationships with our vendors across the country help our communities acquire necessary equipment and supplies in a time of emergency.”
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