UofL Hospital lost power for 12 hours, leaving some patients without AC
University of Louisville Hospital was without power for about 12 hours Saturday, leaving some areas without air conditioning and requiring staff to transfer a few patients to a different facility.
LG&E confirmed the downtown hospital – the only Level I trauma center for adults in Louisville – was without power from 8:30 a.m. until 8:45 p.m. July 15.
A representative with UofL Health said hospital employees are working with LG&E to determine the root cause of the outage. But LG&E spokesperson Natasha Collins said the outage was caused by an issue with a feed of electricity on the hospital's end, and employees with the company were responsible for isolating power while repairs were made.
"With the collaboration of our engineering team, LG&E and some outside contractors, power was restored to UofL Hospital within 12 hours and all systems were back in use," UofL Health director of public relations David McArthur said in a statement.
McArthur said all "life safety systems" were powered by the hospitals emergency generators during the outage. Those systems include patient monitors, medication systems, all intensive care unit equipment, a majority of imaging equipment, some operating rooms and IT systems.
About 60% of patient areas lost air conditioning. McArthur said fans, ice and water were used to keep patients cool, and extra staff were brought in to keep patients comfortable.
Saturday's high temperature was 86 degrees.
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Five patients were transferred out of the hospital as a safety precaution, McArthur said, adding patient safety was "maintained throughout the outage."
The hospital's pharmacy was also affected by the lack of air conditioning, but McArthur said patient needs were supported with the help of UofL Jewish Hospital, located less than half a mile away.
Emergency code yellow was in place during the outage, activating the hospital's internal or external disaster plan. According to McArthur, the code was cleared after power was restored.
Reach reporter Kate Marijolovic at kmarijolovic@gannett.com or on Twitter @kmarijolovic.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville hospital lost power for 12 hours, leaving patients without AC
