DHHS to investigate whether UNC Rex Hospital followed law after several units lost power
The N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation has launched an investigation into an outage at UNC Rex Hospital that left several units without power, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told The N&O.
On Monday, as severe thunderstorms rolled through Raleigh, parts of the hospital — including the emergency department — lost electricity for more than an hour due to a lightning strike, a hospital spokesperson said.
Regulators have already been on-site at UNC Rex to start the investigation, which will determine whether the hospital was in compliance with state and federal laws.
This is the second organization to say they will investigate the power outage. On Tuesday, the N&O reported that the leading accrediting body for U.S. hospitals would be “opening a case” to determine whether the incident caused unsafe conditions for patients.
No patients were harmed as a result of this outage, health system officials said.
State and federal regulations
North Carolina hospitals must follow a bevy of state and federal laws to ensure they’re prepared for an emergency.
Hospitals are also required to develop and maintain an emergency preparedness plan that lays out what to do in the event of equipment and power failures, a DHHS spokesperson said.
Additionally, the Joint Commission, the leading accrediting body for U.S. hospitals, requires hospitals to take a number of steps to ensure there is a working power system in the case of an emergency.
Those requirements include:
Weekly checks to ensure the generator is working.
Monthly tests to run the generator system and transfer power to ensure the system works during an emergency.
Annual and triennial testing to ensure the generators can support the loads they are designed for.
Annual tests of the fuel system.
All of the required inspections, testing and maintenance are required to be documented, said Maureen Lyons, a spokesperson for the Joint Commission. This documentation will be reviewed during their evaluation of the incident.
Around 7:40 p.m. Monday hospital officials said a lightning strike caused a power surge that tripped circuit breakers and cut power to some areas of the hospital.
Power was restored about an hour and 20 minutes later — around 9 pm.
Phil Bridges, a spokesman for UNC Health, said the power surge shut down the Automatic Transfer Switch, which prevented the surge from damaging hospital systems and equipment.
“Our system reacted the way it was designed to prevent major damage to hospital equipment,” he said.
Teddy Rosenbluth covers science and health care for The News & Observer in a position funded by Duke Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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