Emergency plan rules in Pennsylvania
2 licence types researched, regulated by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Group home / residential care home
Licensed in Pennsylvania as Personal Care Home (PCH), by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107 (emergency preparedness); §2600.123 (emergency evacuation); §2600.132 (fire drills)
An UNANNOUNCED fire drill at least once a month — twelve a year — plus a fire drill during sleeping hours once every six months. Separately, a fire safety inspection and fire drill conducted by a fire safety expert must be completed annually and documented.
That is more often than 81% of the other states we have confirmed a figure for.
Pennsylvania personal care homes must review, update and SUBMIT their written emergency procedures annually to the local emergency management agency.
Authority: Local emergency management agency
Cadence: Annually
Contact telephone numbers for local and State emergency management agencies; local resources for housing and emergency care of residents; means of transportation if relocation is required; and the duties and responsibilities of staff during evacuation, during transportation, and at the emergency location. That last one — duties at the destination — is the part most plans omit.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107- Pennsylvania licenses Personal Care Homes (Ch. 2600) and Assisted Living Residences (Ch. 2800) separately, with different rule sets. A plan written for one is wrong for the other.
Reviewed 2026-07-30
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in Pennsylvania as Assisted Living Residence (ALR), by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107 (emergency preparedness); §2800.132 (fire drills)
An UNANNOUNCED fire drill at least once a month. A fire safety inspection and fire drill conducted by a fire safety expert must also be completed annually and documented.
That is more often than 81% of the other states we have confirmed a figure for.
Beyond the personal care home list, an assisted living residence must hold contact information for EACH resident's designated person, and must have a plan to provide emergency medical information for each resident in a way that preserves confidentiality. Two competing duties in one requirement — the information has to travel with the resident without being exposed.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107Reviewed 2026-07-30
What this page is
The requirements Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.