11:15 a.m. Update

A power surge this morning knocked out a transformer and a breaker, affecting power supplied to the East Tower at CMC. Emergency generators are functional and providing power to the East Tower. Services affected include telecommunications (some cell repeaters down, down time phones down, some 725 numbers cannot call out), lab and pharmacy (not able to receive new orders through the tube system), and elevators. Overhead paging system is back up and functional.

No patients have been moved or evacuated.

Staff is being asked to use thge stairs in the East Tower as possible. The smaller number of functional elevators are being reserved for patient, equipment and supply transportation. Please be patient as there will be delays in supply deliveries, as well as areas surrounding the operating rooms.

Imaging is expected to be down until 11:30 a.m. Wed. 8/15 while LP&L is working on replacing the damaged transformer. Even after the transformer is repaired/replaced, it is expected the East Tower will continue to operate on emergency power until the breaker has been repaired as well.

MEDITECH and the EMRs are currently operational. Dictation room computers for physicians in the East Tower are not on emergency power, so physicians will need to dictate at nursing stations in the South Tower.

If you or your area have any concerns, please dial into the command center conference line at (714) 704-6808, passcode 53449#.

Please share these details with your teams. Additional details will be shared as they are available. Thank you for your hard work in ensuring this has minimal impact on patient care.

6:15 p.m. Update – Momentary Power Interruption Expected

An interruption in power at CMC is expected around 6:30 p.m. as the new transformer is brought on line. Affected areas will include the South Tower and SER (Heart Center, the Cath Lab and Endo should not experience an interruption). The interruption in power should only be momentary, but equipment not on Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) may restart or shut down.

The earlier estimation of the duration of the outage lasting several days was a worst case scenario. It is expected that normal power will be restored this evening.

Please share with your area.

8:45 p.m. Update – Normal power restored

Normal power has been restored to CMC. Some issues caused by the initial surge and transformer/breaker failure will continue to be addressed. If you observe any lingering issues, report them to the appropriate departments as you normally would.