Oct 8, 2018 2 min read

A recently privatized nursing home that Washington County formerly owned and ran was on emergency power for more than 24 hours last weekend.

Grid power was out at Premier Health Center in Chartiers Township from about 8:45 p.m. Saturday to around 9:30 p.m. the following day.

Tim Kimmel, executive director of the Old Hickory Ridge Road facility, said West Penn Power told managers that a tree had fallen on Allison Hollow Road, knocking out power for about 500 customers.

He said the nursing home maintains two “legs” to connect it to the power grid, so it can switch over to the second one if the first goes out. In this case, a surge prevented that from happening.

“What we didn’t know was when the lines went down it blew out fuses in our transfer switch,” Kimmel said, “which is why we weren’t able to transfer.”

He said an emergency generator allowed staff to continue operating “critical components” needed to care for the roughly 230 people staying there, even if the situation forced employees to make adjustments such as having to serve cold meals while power was out.

“We have outlets throughout the building that are connected to the generator … so we were able to use extension cords to run power to the (rooms where residents) are on oxygen, the residents that are on air mattresses, and so on and so forth.”

Premier Health Management LLC of Philadelphia purchased the 288-bed care home from the county for $26.9 million last year.