BROCKTON — Patients who had just given birth had to start their recovery on a hospital floor with no electricity, as the city’s battered health care system faced down its latest challenge.
A Saturday power outage at Good Samaritan Medical Center forced ambulances to take patients to other emergency rooms and sparked a partial evacuation of the city’s only remaining hospital. By Sunday morning, Good Sam had completely reopened.
An overflowing toilet caused a water leak that reached the electrical room, damaging an electrical box which affected an electrical panel that in turn affected the switch for the hospital’s emergency generator, according to hospital and city officials. The hospital had to bring in a new electrical panel, said Deborah Chiaravalloti, regional marketing and communications lead for Good Sam owners Steward Health Care.
Was anyone injured during the power outage?
No one was injured during the incident, Chiaravalloti said.
Steve Hooke, director of Brockton Emergency Management Agency, said his main worry was getting the ER fully open. The emergency department never closed completely, as it continued to accept walk-in patients.
“They had a plan in place, they executed the plan very smoothly, got replacement parts overnight,” he said Tuesday.
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Had the failed electrical panel passed inspection?
Chiaravalloti said the electrical panel had passed city inspection.
Brockton Neighborhood Health Center was back-up plan
As news spread Saturday of the outage, other Brockton facilities sprang into action. Brockton Neighborhood Health Center made plans to open Sunday, said CEO Sue Joss.
“These plans turned out not to be needed, as we did not see a surge in patients and Good Samaritan was back up Sunday morning,” she said via email.
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Patients in labor rushed to other facilities
BNHC’s main clinic is at 63 Main St., but certified nurse-midwives and doctors cover the maternity floor at Good Sam. Joss said some patients had just delivered babies when the power went out. Stable patients stayed during the blackout, assisted by Susan Wente, a BNHC midwife. Patients in labor were rushed to other facilities.
The blackout didn’t affect the whole hospital. Authorities closed the operating room, intensive care unit and labor and delivery rooms, however.
Brockton’s only other hospital closed since February fire
The loss of power and partial evacuation took place amid tough times for area patients. Brockton Hospital has been closed since a fire fried most of its electrical system in February. That facility won’t reopen fully until some unspecified time in 2024.
Keeping this from happening again?
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday if the incident exposed flaws that could be corrected to make Good Sam more resilient, Chiaravalloti said.
“In general, we always want to learn from [incidents like these],” she said, adding that the incident and emergency response plan worked as designed.
Send your news tips to reporter Chris Helms by email at CHelms@enterprisenews.com or connect on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @HelmsNews.
