Underground flooding damaged an emergency power switchboard at one Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento (Calif.) building, leading physicians to cancel or relocate 50 surgeries Wednesday, according to a Sacramento Bee report.
The emergency power switchboard of Ose Adams Medical Pavilion — a 281-bed hospital on the Sutter Medical Center campus — sustained water damage and failed, which harmed power lines between the board and the hospital's backup generator.
Because hospitals need to maintain backup power in operating rooms, physicians had to cancel 25 elective surgeries and relocate 25 nonelective surgeries to other campuses at Sutter Medical Center, which were unaffected by the damage.
Backup power had been resorted to most ORs by Wednesday afternoon, and most of the canceled surgeries have been rescheduled, according to the report.
"As always, patient safety is our top concern, and these steps ensure that all patients will receive the safe care they need," a Sutter spokesperson told the Sacramento Bee.