The Status of Fire Safety in Taiwan's Geriatric Institutions-- Take Long-Term Care Institutions and Nursing Homes for Example

Abstract

The main resident objects in geriatric long-term care institutions and nursing homes are the elderly who are disabled or who cannot evacuate to a refuge independently; thus, without effective prevention method and strategies it often cause major injury and death once a fire occurring. In Taiwan, the specific construction and fire safety regulations governing geriatric long-term care institutions and nursing homes have been raised in medical institutes, but, these regulations and strategies for geriatric institutions shall be different from general medical institutes. However, the fact of the matter is that there are some potential fire safety problems existing in Taiwan's geriatric long-term care institutions and nursing homes despite their current fire equipment comply with the related construction and fire safety regulations, this is so-called ＂pursuant to regulations but danger still exists＂ situation. This research aims to investigate the current status and problems of geriatric care institutions and nursing homes so as to analyze potential dangers existing in the qualified institutions. In addition, the research would like to develop reasonable evacuation strategies and offer recommendations to improve the fire safety of qualified institutions.