Can You Really Prevent a Power Outage?

Accountability is one way to minimize power outages. (…)
by Rick Christ

What you need to learn from the power outage in the Outer Banks

By now your Facebook feeds have been full of images featuring tourists fleeing Ocracoke Island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Last Thursday, a construction team drove a steel casing into an underground cable, and a severe power outage crippled the area. 10,000 tourists were ordered off the island within 24 hours, residents were placed on a strict conservation effort through rolling blackouts, and the area prepared for weeks without a solid fix.
 
Generators have failed, a state of emergency declared, and businesses are watching their highest season for income slip away. While we’d love to be sitting on the beach reading one of our favorite books, Crisis Response & Prevention is much more concerned about the impact this can and will have on healthcare.
 

Power System Reliability

We all know that healthcare facilities simply cannot afford to lose power. Even a power surge or flicker could be deadly, so what are some steps you can take to inure an event like this doesn’t affect you?
 
Starring with the planning and design of the power system and extending through construction, installation, and maintenance, making sure that everything will continue to work, no matter what Is the best option. There should be plans for common power failures, responses for weather-related events, and even a plan in case someone forgets to call Miss Utility.
 

Staying Compliant

All of today’s HCC talk is about compliance, but there is more than just CMS Compliance. When it comes to hospitals and health care centers, there are local building codes, fire marshal inspections, and even regulations regarding power systems. Recommendations from Health Facilities Management address some of these best practices.
 
Keeping these power locations away from areas that are more likely to face the elements will help limit downtime. Maintenance, particularly of emergency power automatic transfer switches is going to be key for all existing power supplies, so make sure this is on your list of things to check. This falls under the National Fire Protection Association NFPA 110 standard.
 

What your facility can learn from this event?

Accountability is one way to minimize power outages. In a 1998 example in Southern California, forensic engineers discovered that there were no conductors connecting the generator and the automatic transfer switches used in a power outage. The hospital cut corners to save money, and it backfired. Here are three quick takeaways from that situation:
 
  • Trust your professionals – when you hire electrical engineers, listen to them.
  • Test the process – don’t simply trust that everything will work because it’s supposed to. (If you are required to have a generator, you are required to test it, under full load, for at least four hours, regularly.)
  • Make arrangements to keep your emergency generator fueled consistently during a lengthy power outage. Have deals in place with two suppliers.
People trust that they will be taken care by their healthcare staff, and this rings true especially when things aren’t going right. Don’t risk losing the trust of your patients, and be prepared for even the simplest power outage to occur and for everything else to go wrong.
 
To keep up-to-date with the events in Hyde County, you can follow them on Facebook and check outage situations here.
 
To learn more about testing your generators and other healthcare preparedness steps contact us.
Categories:
Topics: Compliance, generators, power, Safety

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