Nashville Explosion Hampers Hospital Operations

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities must prepare for a range of potential emergencies, from flooding and tornadoes to power outages and active shooters. But as facility managers know well, ensuring the resilience of their organizations also requires responding to and returning to operation after even the most unexpected crises. Take an exploding RV, for example.

The Dec. 25 explosion of an RV in Nashville, Tenn., disrupted AT&T and T-Mobile services, leading to outages at hospitals, according to Becker’s Health IT. The blast significantly damaged an AT&T building and affected connection points for regional internet services and local wireless, internet and video, according to the company. The explosion knocked out some of the company's backup power generators as well and caused service disruptions in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.

Sumner Regional Medical Center experienced network and system outages due to the incident, according to a Facebook post. The hospital reverted to paper records when it lost access to the EHR and other operating systems. Thomas Health also reported IT issues related to the AT&T network hub damage. The connection between Thomas Health and its data center was affected, shutting down all information management operations at the hospital and physician offices, including the EHR.

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