After The Storm - Expanding the Concept of Emergency Power Reliability
by David Stymiest, PE, CHFM, CHSP,
FASHE
As
mission-critical equipment, hospital emergency power systems are
expected to provide power consistently to what they must, when they must
and for as long as they must. This is a tall order, and the impact of
an emergency power system failure when normal utility power also has
failed is potentially severe for patient care.
The
failure of some facility emergency power systems during and after last
fall’s superstorm Sandy already has spawned investigations, which
ultimately will result in lessons learned and more knowledge upon which
health facilities professionals can base best practices to reduce
vulnerabilities.