By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor

Healthcare facilities managers face a daunting challenge in ensuring the compliance of their facilities to an array of national standards, local building codes and related mandates that aim to ensure facilities are safe and reliable. Now, managers in one state’s assisted living facilities have been put on compliance notice by the state after a tragedy that killed nine people.  

All 273 assisted living facilities in Massachusetts must send letters to all residents and families detailing fire safety protocols, evacuation procedures and key points of contact, according to WBUR. Gov. Maura Healey announced a spate of safety-focused changes that her administration is requiring assisted living centers to make in response to the recent fire that killed nine residents at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River. 

The state’s Executive Office of Aging & Independence, which certifies and regulates assisted living centers, will launch a statewide fire and life safety initiative. Under that program, the state’s 273 facilities must issue letters with safety details within five business days and submit a state fire safety assessment survey.

That survey is intended to measure compliance with fire safety requirements related to sprinkler systems, fire drills, evacuation protocols and maintenance of fire-rated doors and walls. Facilities must return the survey along with a copy of their current, site-specific disaster and emergency preparedness plan. 

The state said facility operators must also report the age and key systems in their buildings. 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.