We all anticipate the annual DAL from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) providing a cold weather or warm weather advisory, and typically it’s the same. This year’s DAL, dated November 3, 2026, has some additional details that New York nursing homes should be aware of.
The biggest change is that the DAL directs you to the Incident Reporting Manual (August 2026) instead of a phone number – and the phone numbers in previous years’ DALs are not the same ones that are in the Manual.
Loss of Heat
The Incident Reporting Manual treats heat as a vital service. It’s part of the “report immediately” section of the manual related to physical plant issue or loss of service. Just a reminder that per the manual, a loss of service is reportable if any one of these is true:
- An unexpected loss lasts, or is expected to last, at least four hours.
- A planned loss lasts, or is expected to last, at least four hours.
- There is no back-up system in place.
- There is a back-up system, but it failed.
- The event may affect resident care.
After Hours Contact Info
For a heating failure at night, on a weekend or on a holiday, the Incident Reporting Manual says to call the Medical Operations Coordination Center at (917) 909-2676. Last year’s alert said to call the DOH Duty Officer at 1-866-881-2809. Ensure responsible staff have the correct phone number for reporting.
That said, the Duty Officer line has not gone away. The manual still lists it, but for off-hours public health emergencies in general. For physical plant and loss-of-service problems, the manual names the (917) number. A facility whose information still shows only the Duty Officer line has the wrong first call for a boiler failure at 2 a.m.
Business hours instructions have also changed now that the manual is available. The 2025 alert pointed to the Centralized Complaint Intake Unit during 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The manual points to the DOH Regional Office for your county, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and lists a phone number for each of the seven regional offices.
Other Changes
- The 2026 DAL includes a section on Emergency Preparedness that was not in the 2025 version. It reminds facilities about Health Commerce System (HCS) requirements, including role assignment.
- The DAL also indicates that all facilities should complete the redundancy survey by December 15, 2026 to help DOH coordinate administrative response resources during cold weather events.
View NYSDOH DAL NH-26-16 “Cold Weather Advisory” for more details. The August 2026 version of the Incident Reporting Manual is also available for download.
