Santa Rosa hospitals continue operations with backup power during PG&E shutdown

The three largest hospitals in Santa Rosa continue operating Wednesday despite PG&E’s temporary power shutdown.

Kaiser Santa Rosa Medical Center, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital all are equipped with significant backup power generation and can continue taking care of patients during a blackout.

Tom Hanenburg, chief operating officer of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said the Santa Rosa medical center is the only Kaiser hospital that was given notice from PG&E of a potential power outage.

Hanenburg said all Kaiser hospitals are equipped with emergency generators that can support critical hospital systems.

“An outage may also affect outpatient medical offices and require rescheduling certain services,” he said.

Hanenburg said Kaiser is reaching out to patients who rely on medical home devices that require electrical power to “provide steps to take in a power outage to protect their health.”

Christian Hill, a spokesperson for St. Joseph Health, which runs Memorial Hospital, said both Petaluma Valley Hospital and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are operating Wednesday as usual.

However, the preemptive power shut-off forced the Wednesday closure of three Santa Rosa Community Health clinics, including the new Vista Campus, 3569 Round Barn Circle, which celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday evening two years after the Tubbs fire left the clinic severely damaged from smoke and water damage.

You can reach Staff Member Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.