MC used to be AL. Alarms pulls were for that type of facility. How can they expect MC patients to know any better? I did talk to the local Fire Marshall about it. Director at MC says it's corporate telling him what he has to do. Anyone have this happen and what recourse to I have? Shouldn't be blamed on MC patients plus facility should address the problem. Other residents have been evicted for this too. Thanks!
In a MC facility, they should be placed higher, or covered and locked, with several keys that staff would have handy. The facility's reasoning behind this is a "false alarm" costs them around $600-$1,000 fine. It's not cheap to roll a fire engine/crew out on full alarm status, to do their job.
If this is the first time she pulled it, they should bill you penalty fee. The next few times it will double. A (false) Fire Alarm is not a funny prank, expensive and takes the crew away from a REAL fire. They have to pay plenty to have those alarms inspected annually as well.
Corporate concerns are always about money.
They were aware of this issue and did nothing about it, they thus accepted the risk.
I would negotiate with them, offer to pay 1/4 and go from there, line up your thoughts send them a registered letter explaining your reasoning. Always play into their weak area, which is that this has happened before.
Google "Pull Station covers"
Grainger has quite a few.,
They protect but do not restrict use.
I think if a person with dementia saw the cover and tried to pull the alarm they would not have the understanding on how to get to the alarm through the cover.
One extra point – it did occur to me that turnover is often profitable in a facility. There are extra fees at the change point, plus a chance to get rid of difficult residents. It may be worth considering if this is actually a deliberate strategy to ‘push the business on’.
Pay the fine but I may write cooperate a letter.
Tell them no, and smile sweetly as you tell them be happy to talk to the higher-ups about it.
If you can, you can try to meet (or speak) with the Director of the facility - ask what type of safeguards will be put into place to prevent this from occurring again - especially in light of this happening previously. It's also the responsibility of the facility to implement something that lessens this from reoccurring.
What is the expense of this penalty? Perhaps since it's your mother's first offense, can they either take a pass on this instance or can you offer to pay half? You can also try to reach out to the corporate office to discuss.
You said that you spoke to the Fire Marshall - what did they say about it? If all else fails, you may want to just the penalty to avoid future issues.