Boulder, Colo.-based Frasier Retirement Community was given only 75 minutes notice before Xcel Energy cut its electrical service April 6 amid dry and windy wildfire conditions, KFF News reported June 10. Facility staff then had to continue care for 500 patients for 28 hours without power.
"When we heard 'rumors' about their planned power outage, our Director of Facilities called Xcel to get a status. We requested to be spared from their de-energizing plan then," Julie Soltis, director of communications for Frasier told Becker's. "Originally, our rep said we would not be impacted. Unfortunately, we were notified later that we would, in fact, be part of their power outage."
Ms. Soltis said three to six hours would have been ideal to prepare, but "in this case, high winds were predicted a couple of days prior. If Xcel had decided or even considered a de-energize plan for this wind event, a heads-up a day or two before would have been ideal – if we could not have been spared."
While they were able to rely on cell-phones for communicating with one another and backup generators for refrigeration, lighting and oxygen machine use, the heat remained off overnight April 6, even when temperatures dropped to around 44 degrees.
There were extra blankets and flashlights to go around, according to KFF, but the event was one that highlighted how nursing homes can be an afterthought when it comes to some emergencies, or in this case, planning power restoration priorities.
Although CMS requires nursing homes to have preparedness plans for emergencies that include restoring building power and what to do in the event of an evacuation, many may not have plans in place for public safety power shutoffs because that is not a requirement, according to KFF.
Events like routine power outages or necessary ones to curb wildfire risks may be increasingly common as the climate continues to change, particularly as a June 2023 study, published in JAMA Network Open identified that 55% of U.S. nursing homes are located within about three miles of areas that meet or exceed the 85th percentile of nationalized wildfire risk.
"Protecting the safety of our customers and communities is our top priority. We recognize that being without this essential service brings challenges to our customers, and a public safety power shutoff (PSPS) is a tool of last resort. We stand by our decision to protect the public from wildfire risk and firmly believe our actions contributed to preventing wildfire during the extreme wind event," an Xcel Energy spokesperson told Becker's. "This week, we’ll be conducting outreach to customers to enlist medically vulnerable customers and provide them with additional communications prior to a planned PSPS."