Emergency plan rules in Maryland
One licence type researched, regulated by Maryland Department of Health — Office of Health Care Quality. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in Maryland as Assisted Living Program, by Maryland Department of Health — Office of Health Care Quality.
COMAR 10.07.14.46 and .47 (Emergency Preparedness)
A semiannual emergency and disaster drill on ALL shifts, alternating between evacuating residents and sheltering in place so that each is practised at least once a year. Where the programme can demonstrate that moving residents would harm them, the drill may be run as a table-top exercise instead.
That matches the most common figure across the states we have confirmed.
Drill records kept on file for a minimum of 2 years, including signatures of all participating staff and the opportunities for improvement identified.
Staff must be oriented to the emergency and disaster plan and to their own individual responsibilities within 24 hours of commencing job duties, with completion documented in the personnel file. Not within a week, and not at the next scheduled in-service.
COMAR 10.07.14.46/.47Reviewed 2026-07-30
What this page is
The requirements Maryland 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 floor does not vary by state. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 binds any employer: reporting an emergency, evacuation and exit-route assignments, critical-operations shutdown, accounting for everyone afterwards, rescue and medical duties, and naming who to ask about the plan. 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 and is driven by this same research, so the two cannot disagree about what Maryland requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.