August 12, 2019 | Modern Healthcare 25
Power
plays
Blackout response plans
require regular attention
E
LECTRICAL POWER EQUIPMENT designed to prevent overloaded
circuitry failed in New York this summer, leading to a fi ve-hour blackout
in parts of the city on July 13, pushing Mount Sinai Hospital West into
disaster-response mode.
Mount Sinai executives acted quickly, switching to alternative power coming from
its several diesel-powered generators, which allowed the facility to keep its clinical
areas operational as well as other vital departments such as the pharmacy, laboratories
and certain elevators, said Don Boyce, vice president of emergency management for
parent Mount Sinai Health System.GETTY IMAGES
By Steven Ross Johnson