Power Outage

Today the power went out at the hospital. Quickly, the backup generators went into action, making sure critical machines like ventilators did not stop. Within an hour, power was restored. But this got me thinking of how crucial electricity is. Imagine being stuck in an elevator while transporting a critically ill patient. Or having the lights go out in the middle of surgery. Even mundane tasks like checking labs in the computer or text-paging physicians or writing notes come to a halt. Indeed, some teams awaiting critical labs had to call down to get an answer, not even sure if samples could be run during a blackout. Now that all our records are electronic, a simple blackout robs us of all our basic information. Luckily, the backup protocols were in place to assure that patient care was the foremost priority, but this reminded me of the importance of disaster readiness and preparation.

Image of crossed wires causing a short circuit is shown under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License 2.5, from Wikipedia.