New Jersey has amended their "ambulatory care" facility standards to require an emergency generator. The section and text:

Sec 8:43A-24.16

"an emergency generator in a room with a 1 hour fire rating with an approved fresh air intake and an explosion release. All machines shall be connected to the emergency generator so that all machines will operate for at least 4 hours following a power outage or shutdown."

From the information I have this requirement is applicable to all future and existing dialysis facilities and becomes effective September 2007.

I am curious as to how other New Jersey dialysis facilities (companies) are dealing with this.

They tried that years ago down here in new orleans guess somebodys brother owned a generator company but then all the clinics got together Davita,DCI,Gambro,ect... and wrote letters to there reps in the capital noting that it would be to expenseive to install generators in all the units and the issue was dropped

The cost of a generator and annual maintenance is relatively cheap in the long term. I live in the Northeast all our clinics have generators and we are all thankful for that. With no power you can't dialyze.... which means zero revenue for that day or perhaps longer?? Even rescheduling treatments is costly (OT, Transportation etc.)

For those of you with generators,

Are your generators 3 phase so that you can run your RO? Are they large enough to power your HVAC or just enough for the machines and lighting?

Chuck

Good point Chuck...our requirements are driven by DPH, so everything has to "run".

I have a 15 station clinic that can run solo with the generator I have. That includes RO, HVAC etc. Its an 80 kW 460 Cid natural gas fueled Ford engine made by Kohler. Our maintenace contract for the year is less than $1,000.00. Would not like to be without one.

I shudder to think what it would cost for a generator to "run" my largest facility...36 stations, elevator, 4 roof top HVAC units (total 20 ton) with electric VAV boxes, 3phase electric water heater (re-heats the water from our gas fired heater up to 160F), and our corporate offices and servers.

I don't know if it's standard or not on large generators but I would think they would have to be pure sine wave which would add major $$$$$.

If a company owns the land and building they MAY be able to allocate space for this but, what about the facilities that are in leased space in strip malls and such? Facilities don't have a lot of extra space.

Chuck

Chuck. We are located in a strip mall and our generator is on the roof. We were given money from the government to purchase the device and are given a set amount year for its up keep and repair.

quote:

Originally posted by orc: Its an 80 kW 460 Cid natural gas fueled Ford engine...

<---- grunting profusely

Nice!! We don't have any generators up here. Only in the hospital based units. Most of our clinics are in a strip mall type setup.

ORC, WOULD YOU PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR CONTACT INFO. I HAVE A QUESTION CONCERNING GOVERNMENT HELP WITH EMERGANCY GENERATORS.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE, OLDMAN