With respect to disaster planning and backup power requirements, Hurricane Katrina was a real wakeup call. Prior to Katrina, most hospitals and emergency medical facilities thought their trusty backup generators would provide all the long-term power protection they needed in an emergency. When New Orleans flooded as the result of Katrina, hospitals were without power for several days. All critical life support, operating room, laboratory, communications, and data services were shut down. As a result, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) issued a Sentinel Event Alert on September 6, 2006.
JCAHO said, “Health-care facilities are highly dependent on reliable sources of electrical power. Therefore, electric power is a mission-critical resource. Each