47.5 MB - The Whole Building Design Guide

least 96 hours (4 days). Emergency power distribution systemsshould be able to provide power to every system in the hospital,and have switching capabilities to shift loads to different parts ofthe hospital as needed.Figure 4-13:Oxygen supplies atHancock Medical Center4.2.10 Communications SystemsHospitals have a variety of communications systems in addition to theusual telephone and e-mail systems. Many of these are for emergencycommunications with ambulances and other emergency supportservices. These include satellite telephones, government line telephones,ham radios, internal radio systems, nurses’ call systems, andwireless systems of various sorts. Communications systems are criticalfor medical uses, but during a storm like Katrina, the ability to contactfamily members and friends to check on their status meant a lotto both the staff and the patients. The importance of being able to getnews from outside, to request restocking of supplies, and to arrangeevacuation of patients became obvious in the aftermath of Katrina.One consistent theme in damage reports was that satellite disheswere toppled, rendering satellite phones, one of the main sourcesof emergency communications, inoperable. Antennae used forOBSERVATIONS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CRITICAL FACILITIES4-21