Hospitals learn power lesson

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol news bureau
• Published: Sep 28, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The loss of power to hospitals and nursing homes throughout a broad stretch of Louisiana ranked as the No. 1 problem caused by Hurricane Gustav, health care officials say.

“Every hurricane disaster has a different personality,” said state Department of Health and Hospitals  Secretary Alan Levine. “You can go after hurricanes Katrina and Rita (of 2005) and change a bunch of things, then another storm comes along and  a new series of problems comes up.”

Power outages were expected. What came as a surprise was how much of the region was without electricity and how long it was off, said health officials interviewed last week.

All area hospitals lost power — some of them for days.

Electricity is necessary to run vital hospital equipment and cool patients. 

Even some health-care facilities equipped with generators found the machines were not powerful enough to operate air conditioning systems for several days. 

“We learned that air conditioning is not a luxury. It is a necessity,” said Teri Fontenot, president and chief executive officer of Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge.

Fontenot said she wouldn’t be surprised if hospitals are soon required by regulators to  have generators large enough to run key areas for patients.

As a “surge” hospital for intensive-care babies evacuating from south Louisiana, Women’s Hospital would be looking to the state for some financial help, Fontenot said.

Some government hazard-mitigation money is available that might help, said John Matessino, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association. But hospitals should plan on finding a way to buy additional generator capacity, he said.

Generators are costly.

Baton Rouge-area hospitals are analyzing their situations and executives of most said they are committed to upgrading generator capacity because they do not want a repeat of the Gustav experience.

Electrical engineers estimated a $10 million cost to upgrade generators for each of the two Baton Rouge General Medical Center campuses, said Cindy Munn, incident commander for Baton Rouge General.