Nursing home sprinkler bills advance
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Sponsored by Sen. Jerry Cooper, D-Morrison, the two bills — which would affect more than 70 nursing homes currently without the safety systems — were approved unanimously by the Senate General Welfare Committee.
The legislation is a response to a September fire at a Nashville nursing home that killed 15 residents and a January blaze at a Maryville retirement home where five residents died and 10 others were injured. Neither facility had sprinklers.
The first bill mandates that alarms be added to every nursing home room within 90 days of it becoming law, which could be anytime within the next three months.
“It would provide a necessary first line of defense while facilities are getting sprinklers installed,” said Ron Taylor, a lobbyist with the Tennessee Health Care Association. The organization, which represents nursing homes across the state, supports the legislation.
The second bill would require all multistory nursing homes to have a full sprinkler system in place by June 30, 2005. Single-story nursing homes are given until Dec. 31, 2005, to meet that requirement.
Tennessee law requires all nursing homes built since 1994 to have sprinkler systems, but homes in existence when that requirement was passed were exempted from it.
Both of the sites where the recent fatal fires occurred were in the exempt category.
The bills’ sponsors have said the requirements were staggered to give nursing homes time to plan for the renovations they’ll need, and to ease the crunch on installation companies.
The installations are estimated to cost $17.9 million over five years, with about $6 million of that borne by the state.
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Read SB3294/HB3415 and SB2457/HB2392 at Tennessee General Assembly, www.legislature.state.tn.us