Lights Out!!! What to do when your hospital has a power outage

RT Jaime
Feb 25, 2021
4 min read

Lights Out!!!

What to do when your hospital has a Power Outage

Have you ever thought about what you would do if your hospital lost power? Well, in case you haven't I wrote a short blog post about it from a respiratory therapists perspective.

OSHA, NFPA, and JCAHO

According to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), hospitals in the United States are legally obligated to have backup generators for life saving equipment in the hospital. In addition to that, the National Fire Protection Agency’s and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirements include having the backup generators turn on and provide power to the life saving equipment within TEN SECONDS of power loss.

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Talk to Management Prophylactically

It is so important to have a conversation with your management team before you lose power because there may be helpful policies and procedures that pertain to your hospital and will help staff know what to do in the event of a power outage. Keep in mind I am posting this from my own perspective, however all hospitals are different and abide by different policies and procedures that are pertinent to their geographical location.

Red Plugs

Our hospital's backup generator outlets are the red plug electrical outlets. Make sure you know which ones are the backup generator outlets and ALWAYS plug the Ventilators and other respiratory support machines into those red outlets (follow your hospitals policies and procedures).

Ventilators and other Respiratory Equipment

Since we are Respiratory Therapists and we are in charge of the ventilators and other respiratory support, that means we have to make sure our machines are plugged into the red electrical outlets in case of power failure. However, we also need to reach out to our management team and verify how long the battery lasts on various pieces of equipment. Especially if you work in a hospital with older equipment, then you may take the expected battery life and take it with a grain of salt. But, if your engineers and technicians who operate and keep up to date quality assurance checks on the backup generators have done a good job, the backup generators should turn on within 10 seconds of power failure.

Oxygen Modalities

Oxygen modalities like High Flow Nasal Cannula, nasal cannula, simple mask, should operate pneumatically and do not have any need for electricity or backup generator power. The most that would happen is perhaps not having HEATED and humidified air for the HFNC, but the respiratory support will still be there. Refer to the operators manual for the Vapotherm, Optiflow, since these types of high flow nasal cannulas DO require electricity to operate. Refer to the operating manuals for other respiratory support machines for further clarification on backup batteries, and always follow your hospital’s policies and procedures.

HFOV

We have to expect the Unexpected! This includes being prepared for the machines to turn off. Especially the High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilator. The High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilator is a sturdy piece of equipment, however, my first question in the NICU was, “Does it have a backup battery?” According to Vyaire’s HFOV manual, the oscillator will only alarm that there is a power failure and STOP OSCILLATING. THERE IS NO BUILT IN BACKUP BATTERY! If you are connected to a backup plug, you can hit the start/stop button to begin oscillating again after power is regained within 10 seconds of the backup power kicking in. Another option would be to place an external backup battery with the Oscillator in the event of power loss. It would have to be medical grade and be purchased by the management team at your facility.

Manual Bags that Nurses can use

In the ICU there already should be AMBU bags or Jackson Rees Anesthesia Bags at bedside plugged in and ready for use. However, you must place a bag that the nursing staff feels comfortable using. You are only one RT and you may have 4-10 patients/vents that day. Make sure the nursing staff is comfortable using the AMBU bag. Some facilities restrict the use of the Jackson Rees Anesthesia Bag to Respiratory Therapists and Anesthesia staff, so please follow your hospitals policies and procedures.

Assign roles for manually bagging HFOV patients

If you are working in the NICU and have multiple patients on HFOV, then assign roles to the respiratory therapists on staff as to who is responsible for checking on which oscillator patient in the event that the hospital loses power. The point is so that all the RT’s don’t run into the same patient’s room leaving the other oscillator patients without an RT. Once you divide this assignment in the event of an emergency then check on that patient and make sure your AMBU or Jackson Rees bag is ready for use with the flowmeter on.

Thanks for reading this blog and I hope you gained some useful information out of it. As always, follow your hospitals policies and procedures when it comes to power loss and emergency backup power. Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my Newsletter so you can stay up to date with all my blog posts, eBooks, and educational videos.