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Florida’s 695 Nursing homes and 3,101 Assisted Living Facilities are required under a new law to install permanent generators capable of cooling for 96 hours or come up with a temporary solution by June 1st.

The new generator law was put in place after a dozen elderly residents died of heat stroke in a south florida nursing home after it lost power in Hurricane Irma.

Now, hurricane season is underway and a state agency shows the vast majority of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state have not installed generators.

Numbers released by the Agency for Health Care Administration a week before the deadline showed 74% weren’t in compliance.

“I do think the numbers do seem very low,” said Shaddrick Haston, CEO of the Florida Assisted Living Association. “However, I believe that there are a lot of facilities that are currently in compliance or that they’re waiting for additional information to come back.”

 

139 facilities had installed permanent generators and 691 facilities were granted an extension.

Kristen Knapp with the Florida Healthcare Association says facilities given an extension have to have other protections in place.

“You know if they have zoning challenges or equipment on order they do have the ability to have a mobile generator moved in,” said Knapp.

Facilities say there are numerous challenges which have made it difficult to come into compliance.

“We’re seeing some of our members have to install tanks,” said Haston. “We’re seeing some of our members have the generators on back order.”

AHCA says it’s received hundreds of submissions from facilities since its last report.

It will be releasing new numbers Friday.

Any facilities still out of compliance will receive a notice of violation and then the possibility of fines or other penalties.

While AHCA only plans to release consolidated numbers once a week, the public can check on the status of individual facilities at www.floridahealthfinder.gov.

That information is updated daily.

Graphic greyhound racing accidents and living conditions are the subject of a new TV ad soon to be released in Florida.

It’s part of a new ad campaign backed by a seven figure purchase by Protect Dogs- Yes on 13.

The goal… show the public the negative side of greyhound racing before they vote on whether to ban it in November.

“This video shines a light on the cruelty,” said Kate MacFall with the Protect Dogs- Yes on 13 campaign.

Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the Florida Greyhound Association says the images in the ad do not represent the industry as a whole.

“We exercise the dogs all week, we give them all the proper food, we give them the proper care. We especially give them the proper love,” said Cory.

Pro greyhound racing advocates say if people truly want to protect animals, they should focus their attention on animal shelters and not racing.

“115,000 animals are intentionally murdered in the State of Florida every year,” said Cory.

But Greyhound rescuer Sonia Stratemann says greyhound injuries and deaths are more common than the industry wants to admit.

“The State of Florida only requires recording of the deaths of the dogs at the track, so the dogs that I get in are not recorded,” said Stratemenn. “Nobody knows, there’s no recording of any of that.”

The campaign predicts  once Floridians see the ad… the passage of amendment 13 is all but guaranteed.

“Florida voters care about dogs, love dogs and will vote yes on amendment 13,” said MacFall.

Protect Dogs- Yes on 13 officially kicks off its campaign Monday.

The campaign says this ad will be the first of many voters will see before November.

Pro Racing advocates have filed a lawsuit to have amendment 13 removed from the ballot arguing its language is misleading to voters.

A hearing for the case has yet to be scheduled.