Failure Of A Hospital Or Healthcare Facility - 1449 Words

In the last 25 years, Pennsylvania alone has had 8 major disaster declarations by FEMA — or one event every three years. When a hospital or healthcare facility suffers a loss of power, community trust is compromised and consequences can be disastrous. †¢ Nursing home resident mortality rates skyrocketed 218% after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 in Louisiana. †¢ During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the backup power system failed at one of New York City’s premier medical centers, forcing evacuation of all 215 patients. †¢ Power outages during Katrina left Memorial Medical Center without power and inside temperatures of over 100 degrees, forcing a doctor and nurses to hasten death for critically ill patients. Join UGI, GE and healthcare facility†¦show more content†¦In fact, by adding a 1-megawatt CHP system, a hospital can save up to $700,000 annually through increased efficiency. Also known as cogeneration, CHP generates electricity from an on-site engine and heats and cools the hospital or medical facility using waste heat from the engine. CHP systems vary depending on the size of the hospital and its needs, but the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the system is constant, because the system does not rely on the traditional power grid. When the grid does go down, hospitals with CHP serve as dependable islands of power, ensuring critical operations are uninterrupted and offering refuge for emergency workers, displaced people, and patients evacuated from medical facilities that lack power. Discussions — and decisions — about CHP purchases belong in the C-suite, because the discussions revolve not just around technology, but around the health system’s vision and mission and the ways that CHP will help the health system achieve its strategic goals and objectives. Enhances operations A Combined Heat Power (CHP) system enhances a hospital or medical facility’s operations by: †¢ Ensuring that in a disaster, the hospital still will have the power and heating or cooling it needs to ensure continuous patient care and uninterrupted use of important medical