台灣老人福利機構之防火安全現況──以老人長期照護、養護及護理之家為例

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

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. 老人長期照護、養護及護理之家機構等主要居住對象以行動不便、無法自力避難的高齡者為主，過去的火災案例顯示，相關機構若無有效的防制手法與策略，火災發生時常會造成嚴重的傷亡。台灣對於老人長期照護、養護及護理之家機構的建築及消防等相關規範雖已於醫療院所提出別於一般用途的法規規範，但考量居住者的避難行動能力，其所需的規範與策略應與一般醫療院所有所不同。「依法仍存在風險」為目前台灣一般老人長期照護、養護及護理之家機構的現況，即使現況符合建築與消防等相關法規規範，實際上仍然潛在許多火災安全問題。為瞭解相關機構的問題與現況，本研究進行現況調查，以分析依法仍存在之問題，並研擬合理的避難策略與改善建議，以期能提升「已為合法機構」的火災安全。