A power outage that resulted in the evacuation of more than 200 patients at Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights was due to the facility’s failure to “implement equipment and systems” that could have prevented the blackout last August following Tropical Storm Hillary, according to state investigators.
Due to the outage, LAFD firefighters had to physically carry many of the patients down from the hospital’s upper floors to ambulances, and those in critical need were taken to nearby hospitals. A woman even gave birth during the outage, during which staff used flashlights to illuminate the room.
A report by the California Department of Public Health found that the facility’s team that “maintains the physical environment of the hospital” failed to “implement equipment and systems” to “ensure that humidity levels in an indoor tunnel were monitored and controlled.” This was necessary to make sure that the humidity levels did not damage electrical gear that connects the emergency generators to the hospital, the report found.
“This deficient practice resulted in the malfunction of a bus duct which resulted in the complete loss of power from the emergency generator to two of three patient care buildings … potentially placing patients at risk of not receiving necessary care and treatments ,” according to the report.
Days before the incident, staff found a leak in a tunnel between the Central Plant – which feeds chilled water and steam to heating and cooling systems – and the facility, state investigators found.
Staff noted water droplets were forming on the electrical gear and covered it with plastic to protect it “from the high humidity from the leak,” according to the report. The steam leak was to be repaired on Aug. 23, but the storm struck and the power outage occurred on the night of Aug. 21.
Over 200 patients were evacuated during the incident, including over two dozen in critical condition.
According to the Los Angeles Times, White Memorial has not been fined over these findings. The full report is available for viewing online.
