A First-of-its-Kind Initiative to Support Louisianans Who Depend on Life-Support Equipment in Their Homes During Power Outages
In July 2021, the Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH) Bureau of Community Preparedness received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through an ASTHO-managed funding opportunity to launch Power Outage Partners, an innovative initiative to help invasively ventilated Louisianans living at home extend device run time to 24 hours or more during power outages. The added run time will give this vulnerable population more time to safely evacuate during an outage. In short duration outages, the need for evacuation may be averted.
The concept for Power Outage Partners was developed by P4P founder and project director Eric Cote. ASTHO hired Cote to serve as a project consultant for the initiative. In this role over the past two plus years, Cote has worked with LDH officials to develop an operational plan for the initiative, which is expected to launch in January 2024. Cote authored a recently published ASTHO Toolkit that chronicles the Louisiana project and serves as a road map for other jurisdictions interested in launching similar initiatives or taking other steps to boost power outage support for in-home life support users. Cote is working to support the launch of these initiatives in jurisdictions across the U.S.
The Power Outage Partners website provides additional detail about this groundbreaking new initiative. Individuals interested in learning more about the program can contact project director Eric Cote at cote@poweredforpatients.org, or by calling 401-374-8500.