A Question You May Want to Ask Your Clinic

[Stacy Without An E]

I had a historic first at Dialysis tonight: the power went out.  It was out only a mere 45 seconds, but everything was dead.  When the power finally came back on, every machine was alarming.  I've never seen the entire staff move so fast.

It did bring up the inevitable question from me though: does the clinic have a backup generator?

"No, we don't have anything of the kind.  Management says if the power goes out, we just send everyone to the hospital."

My jaw dropped.  I was flabergasted.

Here in the wonderful mecca of Santa Rosa, CA. we have one hospital.  I've had Dialysis there.  They have THREE MACHINES.  That's it.  That's all.

If we have a major earthquake (which we're overdue) or another event along the lines of a 9/11 and power goes out, here's how its going to go down:

1) Power goes out.

2) Dialysis patients flood the hospital (we have 185 at my single clinic.  There are three other clinics in the entire county.)

3) If emergency continues, patients die.

4) Families of said patients sue the clinic.

5) Clinic goes bankrupt.

Now I work in radio.  We have a giant backup generator for the entire building in a huge shed outside.  We have backup batteries in every on-air studio.  We have a backup generator at each transmitter.  Thus, if we have an epic emergency and power goes out, every station stays on the air (as long as we have fuel for the generators.)

If we go off the air, no one dies.  If the Dialysis clinic...well, you get the picture.

It would be interesting to see how many clinics across the country, if any, have backup generators.

[glitter]

My husbands clinic did not have one either. Living here in the land of hurricanes, I asked what the protocal was for a major outtage, they said in the event a hurricane made the clinic unusable (no power) they would BUS the patients all over florida- even to Georgia and Alabama if they had to. They also do pre- disaster evacuatons to other states if one is headed here, by bus.
 
Do you know what they did in New Orleans?

[KICKSTART]

Funny you should bring this up ! We had 3 power cuts during one session last week (they were trying to fix some other fault somewhere else in the hospital and it kept tripping all the power) All our machines started to alarm and when we asked, we were told that each machine has a back up battery , so not to worry.

[cookie2008]

The center I go to in NJ has a back up generator, I do home hemo and if an emergency comes up I just go there.

[rocker]

We do home hemo.  I have the cycler on a small UPS that I hope would supply power long enough to do a normal rinseback, if I'm zippy about it.    But we were also trained in power-loss procedures, if it comes to that, the rinseback can be accomplished manually.

[RightSide]

I did ask that question of my own center, as soon as I had started HD.

They told me that they do have a backup generator available.  Which is a good thing, because power outages are not uncommon where I live--when lightning has hit a substation or something.

[RenalSurvivorDotCA]

My unit is in large regional hospital so, yes, they have backup generators.

I did experience a Code Black (bomb threat) one time and that got people running. We have "emergency off kits" hung on each machine consisting of 4 clamps and a small pair of scissors.
The able patients were to clamp and cut their lines, don't worry about the alarms and get to the safe zones; which was the parking lot.

[Riki]

My unit is in the basement of a nursing home, which has patients on different machines, i would think, so they do have generators.  The nurses in my unit don't like when the power goes out, as when the generators kick in, all the machines alarm.

Last summer, there was a major electrical storm in Charlottetown, and the power was out for several hours.  There were no lights in the back, wher the staff kitchen and the offices and supply rooms are, or the waiting room either, but all the lights and tvs and machines were working well in the treatment area.

[Meinuk]

Stacy, that is a disaster waiting to happen. 

Could you write to your ESRD Network?  (Northern CA is #17 I think) http://www.esrdnet17.org/

At least get it on record somewhere other than here that this exists.

The ESRD Networks exist for patient safety, and they also issue disaster preparedness plans. Your unit has a lot of preparedness to catch up on.

From Their Website:

enters for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network Program Strategic Goals

In accordance with the legislative mandate for the ESRD Network program; to assist CMS in meeting Agency goals (e.g., ensuring the right care for every person every time); and in keeping with sound medical practice, the strategic goals of the ESRD Network Program are to:

                                      o Improve the quality and safety of dialysis related services provided for individuals with ESRD.
                                      o Improve the independence, quality of life, and rehabilitation (to the extent possible) of individuals with ESRD through transplantation, use of self-care modalities (e.g., peritoneal dialysis, home hemodialysis), in-center self-care, as medically appropriate, through the end of life.
                                      o Improve patient perception of care and experience of care, and resolve patient's complaints and grievances.
                                      o Improve collaboration with providers to ensure achievement of the goals through the most efficient and effective means possible, with recognition of the differences among providers (e.g., independent, hospital-based, member of a group, affiliate of an organization, etc.) and the associated possibilities/capabilities.
                                      o Improve the collection, reliability, timeliness, and use of data to measure processes of care and outcomes; maintain Patient Registry; and to support the ESRD Network Program.

                                For information about the national ESRD program you may download the brochure End Stage Renal Disease Networks Program Overview (pdf - 47 pgs) or visit the Forum of Renal Network's Web site or the National End Stage Renal Disease Network Coordinating Center (NCC).

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[sullidog]

Mine also has a backup generator. I'd deffinatly investigate this issue.
Troy

[RichardMEL]

I believe the batteries in the machines only last 15-30 minutes - basically enough that if the power out is severe, you have time to safely take the patient off but you're not going to be doing a normal treatment on battery power that's for sure. Luckily I'm in a hospital unit that is also in an ex-ICU ward, so they have multiple power sources with backups. We've had a few power trips, and even an outage for about 20 minutes, but they switched to another supply and our treatment was OK.

[Jean]

One more thing to worry about. I never thought of that, but when I start D I will certainly find out.

[Des]

We have genrators but we have  had problems with water. Some pipe burst down the road and everybody was without water for a few days..... no dialysis could take place, not even in the hospital. We were sent to other hospitals in other regions.   ? WTH?