Hospital power plan for hurricane season

Usually, by the time you need emergency power, you’re scrambling for a quick fix because the situation’s desperate. It’s a very reactive model. But with the right plan in place, it doesn’t have to be this way.

A large hospital network on the Gulf Coast called us in to help them create a proactive plan for the upcoming hurricane season. They wanted to make sure their patients and staff would be looked after in case extreme weather caused any power outages. Our job was to identify the risks that hurricanes posed to their HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and power resources, and develop a Hurricane Rental Plan for them.

In creating a plan like this, you need to think of every contingency. Every possible scenario. Which is exactly what we did.

After reviewing the hospital’s systems, we saw that their draft plan didn’t have enough power to support chillers in the case of complete power failure. Without chillers, vulnerable patients would have to be moved, potentially putting their lives at risk. The hospital’s reputation would also suffer. We designed a detailed Hurricane Rental Plan that had all the temporary equipment needed to keep the entire hospital network running, no matter what.

A plan like this delivers ultimate peace of mind for hospital administrators. Instead of worrying about the ‘what ifs’ around utilities, it lets hospital management focus on what it does best – looking after patients. We do the ‘what if’ thinking for them.

The hospital network’s Hurricane Rental Plan made sure there would be no delay in delivering emergency power and HVAC systems in the event of extreme weather, and that the systems we delivered were fully capable of meeting their needs. With the plan in their hands, risk of set-up failure was eliminated, and the hospital was fully prepared for hurricane season.