Nassau University Medical Center power failure diverts emergency calls

A blown fuse caused a power failure at the Nassau University Medical Center Saturday evening, temporarily diverting all emergency calls to other local hospitals for care, according to a spokeswoman.

The malfunction on a piece of PSEG Long Island equipment at around 4:40 p.m. caused the outage, hospital spokeswoman Krysia Lenzo said. 

Backup generators at the East Meadow hospital kicked in to provide power to the facility. The Nassau County Office of Emergency Management and the East Meadow Fire Department responded, according to a statement from the Nassau Health Care Corp.

Normal power went back on at about 5:58 p.m., Lenzo said.

“We want to assure our community that there was no impact on patient care during this brief period,” Lenzo said in an email. “Our dedicated staff responded swiftly and performed admirably, maintaining the highest standards of care throughout the incident.” 

All ambulances were diverted to other area hospitals, according to Nassau police. No patients at the hospital were transferred, Lenzo said.

PSEG Long Island spokesman Jeremy Walsh said that at 4:38 p.m., "one of two redundant transmission lines serving NUMC locked out. The second redundant supply was not affected. Our records indicate that the hospital successfully switched to the redundant line and resumed non-generator power."

Walsh added, "The cause for the partial outage is under investigation by PSEG Long Island and NUMC.”