Power to the patients: Energy’s importance in health care

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 7.3 percent of Americans have visited the emergency room in the last 12 months, highlighting just how important the health care industry is. However, running a medical facility means utilizing many resources, the most important of which is energy.

These institutions demand quite a lot of power simply to continue daily operations, and it’s therefore vital that officials invest in solutions that will ensure continuous electricity.

“Health care institutions demand quite a lot of power.”

Hospital flood leads to UPS failure

An extreme and very relevant example of what can happen when power isn’t properly protected is what happened to the Royal Berkshire hospital in the U.K. During the early hours of the morning, a pipe exploded under the facility, which created a rush of water that quickly filled the basement, according to The Guardian’s Nadia Khomami.

Although firefighters were quick to rush to the scene, the water eventually reached the generator and cut power to the hospital’s accident and emergency department. Although many patients had to be rushed to other medical centers, more seriously injured or ill patients had to stay behind.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, it would appear the the hospital’s uninterruptible power supply wasn’t working properly. Shortly after the system switched over to this unit, the UPS caught fire and required the facility to evacuate patients to avoid the smoke.

This incident could have been much worse than it was.

Medical facilities need a partner they can trust

Whether Royal Berkshire’s UPS predicament could have been prevented remains to be seen, but this incident should highlight the importance of periodic maintenance with power systems. These pieces of technology are certainly innovative, but that doesn’t mean they can be left alone in the hopes that they’ll be ready when the time comes.

This is also why it’s vital hospitals work with a partner that knows what it takes to properly maintain these pieces of equipment. At ECS, we pride ourselves on our ability to efficiently and effectively perform routine checkups on our equipment. This can seriously lower the chances of a major malfunction, which can prevent big headaches for medical administrators.