ICORP GROUP · INSIGHTS
Hospital Utility Failure Preparedness: Power, Water and Critical System Outages
Hospital is a building where the interference of the Utility system can affect patient care immediately. Electric water air, air conditioning, communication systems or systems that support Medical Gas, as an example of Critical Infrastructure that needs to be managed more than having a repair officer at the scene.
Start with Critical Utilities Identification
Each hospital has different contexts. It should begin with the question of which system affects the most on Clinical Service, such as ICU, OR, Laboratory, Imaging, Pharmacy or Data Center. The support system may be different. Criticality leveling helps to determine the appropriate Monitoring, Backup and Response Priority.
Know the impact of each system before planning.
The key question is not just “the system is damaged, what the system is going to be” but “which service will be affected within a few minutes and what to do so to keep patients safe.” Facility Team and Clinical Team should work together to make Impact Assessment.
Backup System must be tested.
Available, but never tested backup equipment under close real situations may create over-real confidence. The hospital should schedule a test cycle and record results. Including reviewing the problems found from the test to adjust plans.
Communication Plan Key enough with technical work
When Utility Failure occurs, the agency must know who is Incident Lead, who informs Clinical Area, who assesses the need to move patients or stop some services and who communicates with the administrators. Having clear communication channels helps reduce confusion during pressure times.
Downtime Procedure is designed for real users.
Each unit should know what to do when some systems are unavailable. For example, if the air conditioning system of the district is problematic. If water is unavailable or if the backup system has restrictions. The steps must be short, cut and at the point where the team can access.
After the event, there is a After Action Review.
It should be reviewed what is actually happening. The system responds according to the plan or not. There are points where data is delayed and any resources are not enough. Then take Lesson Learned back to adjust PM Plan, Spare Part Strategy, Emergency Plan and Training.
Dashboard that the administrator should see
- Number of Utility Failure and Downtime
- Recurring Failure of Critical Systems
- Backup System and Testing
- Open Risk No Mitigation enough
- Action from Unfinished Incident Review
ICORP provides facility maintenance and support and healthcare quality consulting, which can help combine the facility risk perspective with continuity of care and accreditation readiness in appropriate projects.
Note: Engineering details and emergency response require reference to the law, standard, manufacturer and engineer responsible for each building.