Jurisdictions that conduct a confidential census of the emergency power systems in their hospitals and nursing homes will quickly understand which facilities have robust emergency power capabilities and which facilities have vulnerabilities that warrant closer attention during power outages.
Vulnerabilities will include:
- Facilities with no source of redundant emergency power (single generator facilities)
- Facilities with seriously outdated emergency power system components, i.e., in excess of 40, 50 and even 60 years of age
- Facilities with limited onsite fuel storage capacity
- Facilities with no air conditioning connected to emergency power
Once a jurisdiction understands the emergency power vulnerabilities in its hospitals and nursing homes, it can develop plans to address these vulnerabilities. The approach taken by the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency in addressing vulnerabilities uncovered by their census of hospital emergency power systems offers a roadmap for other jurisdictions.
The EMS Agency’s new protocols included an accelerated emergency power status reporting requirement during outages and a confidential vulnerability assessment to help facilities uncover emergency power problems not detected during routine testing. Facilities were also asked to schedule a discussion about assessment findings between the facility director, emergency management coordinator and an administrator.
The EMS Agency also introduced the first confidential risk rating of emergency power systems by a public health agency. The confidential risk rating was done to make it easier for EMS Agency officials to maintain increased vigilance during outages of hospitals with outdated equipment, lack of redundant emergency power or limited onsite fuel storage capacity.
These new protocols, and other best practices, were introduced in the [LA County EMS Agency’s Emergency Power Resilience Playbook]. While developed for use in LA County, the Playbook contains valuable content that other jurisdictions can put to use today to bolster emergency power resilience for hospitals and nursing homes.
P4P has developed the Emergency Power Resilience Resource Kit which contains the universally applicable components of the LA County EMS Agency Playbook. A portion of the Resource Kit is provided as a PDF document, and the following Resource Kit components are provided as Word documents so hospital personnel can more easily use them to collect important data.
The PDF component of the Resource Kit includes the following content:
- Outdated Generators: A Risk To Patient Safety
- Understanding the Value of Emergency Power Quick Connects
- FEMA D-1 Checklist For Emergency Power Planning Prior To Power Outage
- FEMA D-2 Checklist For Emergency Power Planning During Power Outage
- FEMA D-3 Checklist For Emergency Power Planning Following Power Outage
- The 10 Most Common Causes of Generator Failure
- Generator Fuel Consumption Rate Chart
The following Resource Kit elements are provided as Word documents. These documents can be downloaded by accessing them through the Reference Materials & Assessment Tools drop down under the Resources tab:
- Emergency Power Vulnerability Assessment for Hospitals
- Emergency Power Vulnerability Assessment for SNFs
- Post-Disaster Hotwash
- Key Emergency Power Contacts Worksheet
- Spare Parts Inventory & Fuel Consumption Rates
Some of these resources include references to Los Angeles County. Jurisdictions and hospital personnel should ignore these references and focus on the content within these documents they can use to bolster emergency power resilience.
Good, Better and Best Guide to Emergency Power Resilience Work Helps Calibrate Level of Effort with Available Resources
To help jurisdictions calibrate the scope of their emergency power resilience work with available resources, P4P has developed this valuable resource: The Good, Better and Best Approaches to Bolstering Emergency Power Resilience for Hospitals.
+No Cost Consultations Available with P4P Project Director Eric Cote +
Jurisdictions with questions about emergency power resilience work can schedule a no-cost, 30-minute consultation with P4P project director Eric Cote by emailing cote@poweredforpatients.org.