Employees on duty this past Saturday night at Loma Linda University Medical Center and LLU Children’s Hospital faced the challenge of operating at minimal power for approximately three hours, beginning around 5:30 p.m.
The incident began when utility provider Southern California Edison was unable to supply power. While the outage with Southern California Edison only lasted four minutes, it shut down operations at the Central Utilities Plant. The main breaker was not re-engaging, which would not allow power to flow to the campus. Both hospitals activated emergency generators, which supplied minimum lighting, five working elevators out of 21, and power for necessary medical equipment. Emergency power was directed to all outlets required for lifesaving medical equipment, such as ventilators, medical air compressors, medication dispensers as well as emergency egress lighting and fire alarm systems. Power service was restored at approximately 8:40 p.m.
Hospital administration would like to thank the teams that went into immediate action to fix the problems experienced when the outage occurred, as well as those of you who worked hard to provide excellent patient care. There were undoubtedly frustrations and inconveniences during this time, but special thanks goes to each of you for your team effort and commitment to excellence. Thank you again for putting our patients first, and for living our mission, even in unique circumstances.