When there’s a power outage in big buildings like hospitals, there’s always a generator that kicks in, but when it comes to rural areas like Philippi, where Broaddus Hospital is located, things get a bit more complicated.
The hospital’s current generator covers only part of the 60-bed nursing home also located on-site, and only powers 35% of the hospital during outages, with machines like CT scanners left unavailable and the hospital forced to transfer patients to the nearest hospital almost 40 minutes away in Clarksburg.
Thankfully, this practice will soon come to an end. Recently, the hospital was awarded $529,000 via a congressionally directed spending request made by Senator Shelley Moore Capito in order to purchase a new generator. This is especially important as Broaddus Hospital is the only 24-hour acute healthcare provider in Barbour County.
For the grant, there were more than 660 applications, but only 231 were approved.
“Our generator only supplies certain areas with power, we have just selected red outlets that receive emergency power when the generators kick on. Our generators are about 25 years old, and they usually work, but it’s not always consistent and so we need to make sure that we have power that powers the whole facility,” Chief Administrative Officer Dana Gould said.
The current generator only has emergency lighting, but officials said they already ordered the new generator, which can power 100% of the hospital for weeks and has a 15 to 20-year lifespan. The hospital hopes it will be delivered before winter.