Extreme weather is becoming bovada sports betting appmore frequent and intense, posing major challenges to healthcare system operations.
Hospitals are required to maintain emergency back-up systems. Still, critical infrastructure remains vulnerable in the face of unprecedented disasters. Diesel generators and conventional back-up equipment are not designed for prolonged use, and they typically serve only a portion of campus facilities.
In response, a growing number of hospitals are going above and beyond minimum code requirements, investing in resilience measures that enable uninterruptible operations.
Hospitals must prepare for an increasingly uncertain future. Rising temperatures are anticipated to produce more extreme weather, heightening existing risks or creating entirely new climate-related vulnerabilities.
Recent disasters have demonstrated the potential of massive financial losses. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hammered New York with $3 billion in healthcare facility damages — based on initial, likely under-reported estimates. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey swept across Texas, leaving hospitals with $420 million in recovery costs.
Many hospitals are becoming more proactive by evacuating patients before major storms make landfall. A study of coastal hospitals found evacuation-related expenses and revenue losses can total $9.5 million with each incident.
Source: Climate Central
Burns’ healthcare clients are expressing greater concerns over whether their facilities can handle the impact of more-extreme bovada casino reviewweather — in particular, severe storms and flooding events. Even temporary disruption to critical electricity, gas, steam, water, or fiber-optic utilities can have far-reaching and perilous implications.
Without new resilience measures, hospital building systems and central utilities may be inadequate during times when they are needed most. Hospitals are required to maintain essential systems’ power supplies for, at minimum, 96 hours. Yet disruption to “non-critical” systems — such as air conditioning or certain medical communications — can still undermine basic patient-care services.
Common hospital infrastructure vulnerabilities include:
Source: Engineered Systems Magazine
Healthcare systems can bolster disaster readiness through a series of self-assessments, identifying actionable short- and long-term measures to overcome major infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Resilience assessment should involve 360-degree reviews of critical infrastructure systems. Done effectively, findings can position facility leaders to develop bovada pokerthe solutions sets best suited for a particular hospital campus. The following are examples of proactive resilience measures.
Hospitals can expand infrastructure system resilience by installing one more unit or component than necessary for normal operations. Additional equipment may be installed for back-up heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, transfer switches, electric panels, or other critical infrastructure.
Incorporating this “N+1” approach prevents risks of downtime if an individual piece of equipment fails, supplies become unavailable, or back-up supplies are necessary over a prolonged period.
Source: Essential Hospitals Institute
Emergency power strategies depend on each hospital’s energy load, access to fuel supplies, and temporary equipment options. Resilience measures may include:
UPS redundancy can help maintain critical loads, avoiding reliance on a single unit. System reliability depends on proper testing and maintenance, potentially through a Service Level Agreement (SLA). An alert and event-monitoring system can identify and address UPS anomalies before critical systems lose power.
Beyond-code emergency preparedness upgrades were once considered luxuries. Nowadays — in light of growing threats of extreme weather, utility outages, and supply chain disruptions — redundant back-up systems are too important to overlook.
Hospitals must act proactively and prioritize the resilience strategies most practical and impactful for their unique circumstances. By revising facility standards and integrating contingency planning throughout capital programs and maintenance protocols, healthcare leaders can protect their facilities against potentially dangerous infrastructure vulnerabilities and, in the process, demonstrate to the surrounding community that their hospital campus can be counted on — no matter what the future brings.
Burns partners with our healthcare clients to develop resilience plans and to implement facility improvements that maintain continuity of critical infrastructure throughout a wide range of disaster scenarios. Contact us for more information on Burns’ hospital resilience strategies.