Ambulances in Essex County have been diverted from delivering patients to the emergency department at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark since Monday, after several days of indoor temperatures soaring above 80 degrees because of a malfunctioning air conditioning system, according to the state Department of Health.
The state also cited CareWell Health, formerly known as East Orange General Hospital, on July 27 for violating temperature regulations throughout the facility, including in some patient rooms that exceeded 80 degrees. CareWell can still accept new patients, but every Friday, it must report to the state temperature readings and the progress it has made fixing the air conditioning system, according to health department penalty letter.
CareWell’s initial correction plans — supplying portable fans, closing the blinds and relocating patients to another part of the hospital — was “inadequate to address the elevated temperature and humidity findings,” the penalty letter said.
State guidelines and industry standards require temperatures inside hospital patient rooms, the emergency department, the intensive care unit and the cardiac care unit to be in the 70-75 degree range and operating rooms to be 68 degrees to 75 degrees, according to the penalty letters.
On Friday, Saint Michael’s officials confirmed the hospital had relocated a dozen patients from the intensive care unit when the air conditioning was not working. The patients were sent to Saint Michael’s sister hospital, St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic, said Bruno Tedeschi, the hospital spokesman.
A “chiller unit,” which transfers heat and cycles cool air into occupied spaces, was being repaired that day, Tedeschi said. “Certain parts of the hospital heated up, because we’re in the middle of a heatwave,” he told NJ Advance Media last week.
The health department notified the hospital Monday that ambulance services had been diverted from Saint Michael’s because efforts to fix the air conditioning had been “inadequate,” according to the penalty letter from department’s Office of Compliance Officer Jean Markey.
The emergency department is allowed to take walk-in patients during a diversion, Health department spokeswoman Nancy Kearney said.
State inspectors who visited the hospital Sunday recorded 99.5 degrees in the emergency room waiting area, 99.1 degrees in the triage area and 98.7 degrees in exam rooms. By Monday, temperatures inside these areas had dropped but not to the required 75 degree-mark, according to the penalty letter. Most spaces were 80 degrees and hotter.
Saint Michael’s engineering department “has been working around the clock since this weekend with outside contractors to optimize the (chiller) unit,” Tedeschi said on Wednesday. “We have also brought on site a second chiller unit, which is being hooked up today. We hope to have the temperature within the range required by the state Department of Health as soon as possible so we can get back to caring for our community.”
The hospital has limited some surgical procedures during this period, and patients have been notified, he said.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused to any of our patients,” Tedeschi said. “We want to thank our nurses and other medical staff who are continuing to provide high quality care to our patients as we work through these challenges.”
Employees are dealing with more than just sweltering conditions in the emergency department and other areas of the hospital, said Virginia Treacy, staff representative for JNESO District 1, the union representing the nurses and technologists at Saint Michael’s. Management sent home more than 150 employees when it shut down various wings and floors of the hospital that are not air-conditioned, she said.
Workers were told to use their vacation time, Treacy said. “We understand they are trying to fix this, but it doesn’t cut it when you are sent home with no pay,” she said.
The air conditioning stopped working about three weeks ago for a couple of days, Treacy added. “This wasn’t an unexpected situation. It’s a very old system that hasn’t functioned properly for the last four years,” she said.
Two floors where patients are located are “safe” because the temporary system is working there, Treacy said. But the ER is “brutal,” she said.
An eight-day heat wave ended Wednesday.
NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Anthony G. Attrino contributed to this report.
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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
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