Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law Aug. 15 that requires nursing homes to develop an emergency response plan for potential disease outbreaks, less than a year after 11 children died in an adenovirus outbreak at Wanaque Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Haskell, according to NJ.com.
The emergency response plans must detail how nursing homes will isolate "at risk" residents from the rest of the population and inform residents, families, visitors and staff of an outbreak. The outbreak at Wanaque, which sickened 35 children and one employee, was partly blamed on the nursing home's delay in hospitalizing patients and failure to properly isolate those infected.
Nursing homes must submit their emergency plans to the Department of Health within 180 days.