Emergency plan rules in Hawaii
One license type researched, regulated by Hawaii Department of Health — Office of Health Care Assurance. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Group home / residential care home
Licensed in Hawaii as Adult Residential Care Home (ARCH), Type I, by Hawaii Department of Health — Office of Health Care Assurance.
HAR ch. 11-100.1, Subchapter 2 (Type I ARCH): §11-100.1-12 (emergency procedures and quarterly rehearsals); §11-100.1-23(g)(1) and (g)(3)(C)–(D) (fire inspection, evacuation plan, drills)
Evacuation rehearsals for staff and residents at least quarterly, covering fire, explosion or other civil emergency, with drills held at various times of the day or night at least four times a year. Each drill record shows the date, hour, personnel participating, a description of the drill and the time taken to safely evacuate residents.
That matches the most common figure across the states we have confirmed.
Filing duty not verified. No filing or approval of the plan was found in HAR 11-100.1 Subchapters 1–2.
This is a finding, not a gap: Hawaii has no filing duty here, so the plan is kept on file rather than submitted anywhere.
Records of disaster evacuation and safety drills must be available for inspection by the Department of Health. The rule states no retention period in years.
Keep written procedures for an emergency, covering: immediate transfer or physician evaluation of an acutely ill, injured or deceased resident; transfer or placement at an emergency shelter or crisis response unit; and response to disasters, including evacuation, emergency shelters and food supply, as directed by the Civil Defense.
HAR §11-100.1-12(a)Keep a written plan for the safe care and evacuation of residents to areas of refuge, with directional diagrams, posted in a conspicuous location. Instruct all personnel in their duties under the plan. Review and update it as necessary whenever a resident's physical or mental condition changes significantly or a new resident enters the home.
HAR §11-100.1-23(g)(3)(C)The home must be inspected at least annually by the appropriate fire authorities for compliance with state and county codes, ordinances and laws.
HAR §11-100.1-23(g)(1)- Hawaii licenses adult residential care homes as Type I (five or fewer residents) and Type II (six or more residents), plus Expanded ARCH. This entry is read from the Type I rules in HAR 11-100.1 Subchapter 2.
- filing — Open the full HAR ch. 11-100.1 PDF (https://health.hawaii.gov/opppd/files/2026/09/chapter-11-100.1-HAR-effective-2006.09.18.pdf) in a PDF reader and read §11-100.1-93 (emergency procedures) and Subchapters 3–6, which were not read; county civil defense / emergency management rules for care homes and HRS §§321-11, 321-15.6 were not researched.
Reviewed 2026-09-28
What this page is
The requirements Hawaii places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal layer does not vary by state, and it is narrower than it is usually described. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 does not bind every employer on its own — by its applicability paragraph it governs an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard requires the employer to have one, and it then settles what that plan must contain. The CMS emergency preparedness rule applies by certified provider type rather than by building. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself. It reads the same research as this page, but it does not yet carry every requirement here into the plan it writes, so check the plan against this page before you rely on it for Hawaii. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.