Bolstering emergency power resilience for hospitals during power outages: How the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency initiative offers a blueprint for other jurisdictions

Eric Cote, Terry Crammer and Christopher Sandoval
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Eric Cote: Principal, Disaster Safety Strategies, USA
Terry Crammer: Chief, Disaster Response and Coordination, Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency, USA
Christopher Sandoval: Disaster Program Manager, Los Angeles County EMS Agency, USA

Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 2025, vol. 18, issue 4, 340-356

Abstract: This paper describes an initiative launched by the Los Angeles County (LAC) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency to bolster emergency power resilience for hospitals operating in LAC. The multiyear initiative, launched in 2019 and concluded in October 2023, culminated in the publication of the ‘Healthcare Facility Emergency Power Resilience Playbook’,1 a heralded resource that introduces innovative protocols to address significant vulnerabilities uncovered during the initiative. These vulnerabilities included seriously outdated generators, facilities with no redundant emergency power and facilities with limited onsite generator fuel storage capacity. New protocols developed to address these gaps include accelerated emergency power threat reporting by hospitals and a first-ever, confidential risk rating of hospital emergency power systems by a government agency. This move is intended to help the LAC EMS Agency maintain closer vigilance of higher-risk facilities during an outage. The new protocols far exceed the federal government’s emergency power requirements for hospitals. This paper also outlines the additional steps jurisdictions could consider to build on the LAC EMS Agency’s groundbreaking work to achieve even higher levels of emergency power resilience. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.

Keywords: power outage; power outage planning; hospital generator failure; emergency power resilience; patient safety; emergency evacuation; CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M1 M10 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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