Weekend Power Outage At Charlton Memorial Hospital

A power outage at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River caused patients to be diverted to other area hospitals.

Southcoast Health spokesman Peter Cohenno says there was a widespread power outage in Fall River on Friday that "an interruption to electrical service at Charlton Memorial Hospital and impacted our HVAC infrastructure."

Craig Jesiolowski, President of St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River, says that a Code Black was issued as a result of the power outage.

That lead the Southeastern Massachusetts EMS Council to put Charlton on an “absolute diversion” list for patients for patients suffering from conditions including cardiac catheterizations, motor vehicle accidents, long bone fractures, strokes, severe abdominal pain, GI bleeding, post surgical symptoms, and all maternal/obstetrical patients.

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel and other medical professionals declare a Code Black when a hospital doesn't have the necessary resources to handle a significant number of patients either due to natural disasters or systems failures.

While most patients were diverted to St. Anne's Hospital as the Code Black continued an emergency waiver issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health allowed patients to be transferred to other area hospitals including Morton Hospital in Taunton.

Cohenno issued a statement on Sunday saying that Charlton Memorial Hospital is fully operational and that all procedures and services scheduled for Monday morning and beyond will proceed as scheduled.