Technology systems such as electronic medical records and digital imaging are revolutionizing healthcare by streamlining processes, eliminating waste, improving accuracy and, most importantly, improving patient outcomes.

While today neither electrical code nor the hospital accreditation standards of the Joint Commission require healthcare organizations to use uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), most have begun doing so to protect vital equipment and systems. Currently it is common practice for healthcare facilities to install UPS backup at the device level, such as an MRI machine or computer server. As the number of UPS units located throughout the facility grows, however, so does the complexity of managing them to keep the devices they protect continuously online.

This paper outlines an approach to power protection that addresses the problems that accompany the distributed approach. The centralized approach to power protection presented here enables healthcare organizations to achieve higher availability and scalability for future growth at lower cost and should be considered for all new healthcare facilities and, whenever possible, in retrofit situations.