By Maria Miranda -
FORT LAUDERDALE | Following the Hurricane Irma-caused deaths of several residents in a Hollywood nursing home, Gov. Rick Scott issued emergency rules mandating the installation of generators at nursing homes and assisted facilities. The rules call for equipment that can control indoor temperatures for 96 hours after an outage and maintain an ambient temperature of no more than 81 degrees.
Photographer: COURTESY
Crews hoist a massive generator into place at one of Catholic Health Services' medical facilities. All CHS nursing homes, rehabilitation hospitals and assisted living facilities are now equipped with the commercial grade, customized generators.
But months prior to the governor’s mandate, Catholic Health Services embarked on the path to equip all its medical campuses, including four nursing homes, four rehabilitation hospitals and two assisted living facilities, with generators that provide full facility power. Moving quickly, management at Catholic Health Services engaged architecture and engineering firms to design custom systems and plans, build required infrastructure, order, fabricate, deliver and install commercial grade, customized generators. Much of the ground work was completed before the end of 2017 and the project now has achieved 100 percent coverage.
“Although there were numerous logistic and regulatory challenges to be met, all of our medical campuses will be fully operational and compliant with the governor’s rules ahead of this year’s hurricane season,” said Joe Catania, Catholic Health Services CEO.
“We have taken every precaution to ensure that our skilled nursing, rehabilitation hospitals and assisted living facilities remain safe and operational during and after a storm,” he added. “Our priority is to ensure the comfort and peace of mind for you and your loved ones. Catholic Health Services is ready to provide Always ON protection at our four medical campuses for any emergency and hurricane season.”
Catholic Health Services, a ministry of the Archdiocese of Miami, is the largest post-acute provider in the southeast United States. The agency provides a full continuum of healthcare and social services, serving more than 6,000 people daily with over 7,500 new patients per year. Catholic Health Services operates 36 facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. For additional information, www.catholichealthservices.org.
