Memorial Turns up the Power

Memorial leaders gathered in the Hospital Incident Command Center to coordinate resources and services during the three-day power outage.

It was lights out for downtown South Bend the weekend of May 16-18 due to a power outage that affected many businesses and organizations throughout the downtown area, including Memorial Hospital.

Through the leadership of many throughout our entire system, and the expertise of Kelly Jolliff, coordinator of Epidemiology and Emergency Preparedness for Memorial Hospital and the entire Emergency Preparedness team, we were able to provide continuous world-class care to patients and families throughout the entire outage.

Memorial Hospital’s Incident Command Center was staffed 24 hours a day throughout this three-day event, and provided coordination of services and resources, staffing management, and communications to internal staff and our local community about our progress.

Incident Command was also initiated at Elkhart General Hospital which handled a surge of patients throughout the weekend.

Despite being without power, hospital units continued to function as usual. The Childbirth Unit went to great lengths to illuminate the work space.

“The outage may have been limited to the downtown South Bend area, but its effects were felt throughout our entire community,” says Kelly. “We are very grateful for the support from our partners and friends throughout the region who pulled together to ensure the continued safety of our patients.”

“Foremost in any disaster is Patient Safety,” says Kreg Gruber, President of Memorial Hospital. “The leadership, management and associates of our organization executed our disaster plan extremely well, and this is what allowed us to continue to take care of our patients in a safe manner.”

“It is quite a humbling experience to be ‘knocked down.’ The measurement of success we should apply is that ‘We got back up’ and kept running!”

The following people helped staff the Hospital Incident Command Center or played an important, hands-on role in ensuring continuous and smooth operation of services during the outage:

A special thank you also goes out to the following departments who worked tirelessly throughout the outage to ensure that of our patients and families continued to received the highest quality care: