Who
- Santa Clara County hospitals
What
During the last heat wave, several hospitals experienced blackouts due to the overload to the power grid, including three hospitals in Santa Clara County. Two of the three hospitals experienced generator issues and were without power to some critical areas of the hospital. One of these hospitals experienced these generator problems for 48 hours and had to go on internal disaster plan.
In the past, when there was a need for patient movement or collaboration with several hospitals, Hospital Council was asked to organize and bring the hospitals together. This was not done in this situation. The CEOs from the Santa Clara Section have asked if Hospital Council could take the lead in working with emergency medical services (EMS) to develop an agreement/understanding on when and how to coordinate the hospitals if there is significant disruption to the health care system. Several referenced our work during the COVID-19 surge and our patient movement hurdles.
Next Steps
Hospital Council is currently developing a framework with EMS. The Hospital Council RVP will be the point of contact for the hospitals to organize meetings with key hospital leaders, the county emergency operations center, and other officials so they will all receive the same information at the same time.