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Feds Want More Smoke Detectors in Nursing Homes

March 25, 2005
Medicare wants more smoke detectors in nursing homes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says it will require more battery-powered smoke detectors in nursing homes that lack sprinklers and hard-wired smoke detectors.

An estimated 4,000 nursing homes lack sprinkler systems because they were built before local building codes required them.

The agency said the new rule came in response to two nursing home fires in Connecticut and Tennessee in 2003. Neither institution had smoke detectors in the rooms where the fires strated.

"This is an important rule that could save many lives by making real improvements in nursing home safety," CMS administrator Mark B. McClellan said.

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