Emergency plan rules in Indiana
One license type researched, regulated by Indiana Department of Health. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Group home / residential care home
Licensed in Indiana as Residential Care Facility, by Indiana Department of Health.
410 IAC 16.2-5 (residential care facilities); comprehensive care facilities at 410 IAC 16.2-3.1
Fire exit drills quarterly on EACH SHIFT, at least twelve a year, held under varied conditions so personnel meet the signals and the required action in different circumstances. Each drill must include the transmission of a fire alarm signal AND simulation of emergency fire conditions — a walk-through without the alarm does not count.
That is more often than 78% of the other states we have confirmed a figure for.
At least every six months the facility must ATTEMPT to hold the fire and disaster drill jointly with the local fire department. The duty is to attempt and to document the attempt — the fire department's availability is not within the facility's control, but the request is.
410 IAC 16.2-5Reviewed 2026-07-30
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Everything else we’ve researched about Indiana
Same state, the problems either side of this one. Each carries its own statute and the date we last checked it.
What this page is
The requirements Indiana 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 and is driven by this same research, so the two cannot disagree about what Indiana requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.