HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (CN) — A South Florida nursing home where several residents died during a power outage from Hurricane Irma is blaming Florida Power & Light for the tragedy, claiming it failed to respond to reports of an impending medical emergency.
Eight residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died after air-conditioning failed during Hurricane Irma, prompting a criminal investigation.
The hurricane is believed to have knocked out a transformer that powered the nursing home’s air-conditioning system. When rescue crews were called to the 152-bed nursing home early Wednesday morning, Sept. 13, they encountered sweltering heat in the building. Residents were evacuated to Memorial Regional Hospital across the street.
Some residents were found dead inside the nursing home while others died after being transferred to Memorial Regional, Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said at a news conference.
Memorial Regional's emergency department director said that evacuated patients were treated for respiratory distress, dehydration and other “heat-related issues.”
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills was one of dozens of medical centers, nursing homes and assisted living facilities across Florida that went without central air-conditioning in the days after the storm.
The law required such facilities to have a generator for essential healthcare functions like running medical devices. But it did not explicitly require air-conditioning generators, which often require higher surge ratings. Over the weekend, the governor's office announced new emergency rules requiring assisted living facilities and nursing homes to have an emergency power system in place to maintain "comfortable temperatures for at least 96 hours following a power outage."
Sanchez said a criminal probe into the Rehabilitation Center is being conducted. Police have not released the precise cause of the deaths. Investigators are examining why the residents were not evacuated sooner, given that Memorial Regional is so close.
The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration on Wednesday, Sept. 13, filed an emergency order to halt admissions to the nursing home. Gov. Rick Scott subsequently directed the agency to terminate the home's status as a Medicaid provider.
Jorge Carballo, a head administrator for the home, said in a statement that the facility “diligently prepared for the impact of Hurricane Irma.”
“While our center did not lose power during the storm, it did lose one transformer that powers the air-conditioning unit. The center immediately contacted Florida Power & Light and continued to follow up with them for status updates on when repairs would be made,” Carballo said.
He continued: “In compliance with state regulations, the center did have a generator on standby in the event it would be needed to power life safety systems. The center also had seven days of food, water, ice and other supplies, including gas for the generator.
“Our staff continually checked on our residents' well-being — our most important concern — to ensure they were hydrated and as comfortable as possible. We are devastated by these losses.”
On Sunday, Sept. 10, as the storm was raging through Florida, the nursing home contacted Florida Power & Light to report the air-conditioning power outage, Carballo said. He said FPL told administrators that it would address the matter, but the line workers did not show up.
An executive with the nursing home’s owner, Larkin Community Hospital, called the Department of Emergency Management hotline to ask for assistance on Monday, Sept. 11, and received word from the Florida Department of Health that the outage would be fixed, according to the nursing home’s narrative.