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Powering Patient Care: Hospital Backup Power Preparedness�AMHE 2026

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2026 AMHE Scenario

Drone attack on local Olympic Event resulting in large Mass casualty incident. Patients are being distributed across the LA County. Local Power substations are also targeted causing hospital power disruption.

  • Trauma patient influx
  • Code triage activation
  • MCI Policy initiated
  • Backup power required
  • Downtime procedures in place

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Huntington Hospital

  • Licensed hospital beds: 534
  • Emergency department: 52 treatment beds. Can flex to over 70 treatment areas.
    • Emergency patients: 80,000 in 2025. >85,000 expected for 2026
  • Trauma designation: Level II Trauma Center—the only trauma center in the San Gabriel Valley
    • Trauma patients: More than 2,700 annually. Highest volume level 2

OLYMPICS 2028

Pasadena

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Rose Bowl: Soccer (5 Games)

Rose Bowl Aquatic Center: Diving

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Within .5 miles of distance between site locations.

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Two overlapping event dates.

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Huntington Hospital Electrical Power Sources��

  • The City of Pasadena provides two sources of power to Huntington hospital. If there is an issue with one substation, the hospital would normally have the second source available.
  • A simultaneous loss or failure of both sources would be considered unlikely except in a major event such as an earthquake or terrorist attack. The November exercise can therefore simulate damage to both substations.
  • If both utility sources are lost, the hospital’s generators automatically start and provide emergency power.

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Huntington Hospital Generators��

The hospital has four generators and has redundancy built into the system. Two generators are capable of supporting the hospital’s required emergency load.

The hospital can operate on generator power for approximately five days, depending on the number of generators operating and the electrical/fuel load.

Emergency power is distributed through designated emergency-power circuits/outlets. Some equipment is connected to emergency power and some is not.

The hospital has two 40,000-gallon fuel tanks, for a total capacity of approximately 80,000 gallons.

The tanks are not filled to 100% capacity. They are maintained at approximately 60% to 90% because fuel expands with temperature.

At full generator load, the generators could consume approximately 12,000 gallons of fuel in 24 hours.

Operating fewer generators would reduce fuel consumption and potentially extend the duration of available backup power.

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Generator Testing and Maintenance��

  • Generators are tested monthly, following Joint Commission recommendations and NFPA 110 requirements.
  • Facilities also performs quarterly generator maintenance. Maintenance includes items such as:
    • Oil
    • Coolant
    • Belts
    • Batteries
    • Fuel system
    • General mechanical condition
  • Generator batteries are checked weekly to ensure proper voltage and readiness.
  • The fuel system is tested annually for purity, including checking for water and bacterial contamination.

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Emergency Power Procedures

Utility power is lost.

Generators automatically start.

Automatic Transfer Switches transfer appropriate electrical loads to emergency power.

Facilities responds and verifies the electrical system.

Departments verify that equipment requiring emergency power is functioning.

Facilities continues monitoring generators, fuel systems, ATSs, and related infrastructure.

Hospital leadership and operational teams continue managing the event based on the emergency/power-outage plan.

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Backup power is a system, not just generators; maintenance matters; know what equipment is on emergency power; understand communications/command process

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Virtual Command Center / Emergency Communications

  • A Teams meeting can be established within the Virtual Command Center channel. Link sent out via Everbridge message.
  • Initial Briefing — Leadership joins Teams meeting for emergency briefing

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Downtime

  • Radio’s
  • Everbridge 
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Overhead Paging systems
  • ReddiNET
  • Satellite Phones
  • HAM radio (ARES)
  • VoIP phones
  • Personal cellphones 
  • Runners/Paper charting

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Communication Redundancy

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Downtime Education

Annual Downtime Exercise

Quarterly Leadership Lead Downtime Drills

Department Specific Downtime Forms

Department Downtime Boxes

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System Gaps

  • Radios- location, usage and frequency.
  • Everbridge- education, network, empowerment.
  • Downtime Forms- repository, accessibility.
  • Command Center- runners, initiation, leadership.
  • Registration and patient tracking.

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Thank You!