Things have gone from bad to worse for several elderly patients, who have been moved from one hospital with no air conditioning to another. Recently, 45 patients were moved from Chicago’s Weiss Memorial Hospital in the Uptown neighborhood because of failed chiller units and temperatures approaching 90 degrees inside the facility.
Of those 45 patients, 21 were moved to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, a facility owned by the same group that owns Weiss, somewhat ironically named Resilience Health. According to Block Club Chicago, the air conditioning at West Suburban Medical Center is also experiencing issues. A statement from the hospital system explained that two faulty air handling units were causing hot zones in the facility resulting in temperatures in patient rooms well surpassing comfort.
The hospital has tried to bring in spot coolers to address the sweltering conditions. Though the individual rooms don’t have thermostats, at least one patient’s family brought a thermometer and recorded a temperature of 88 degrees in the room. In another room with a spot cooler, Block Club reported the temperature gauge on the cooler itself read 86 degrees.
The hospital’s statement read in part: “At West Suburban, some of the areas/departments are warm. Currently, a maintenance employee is walking the building and manually taking temperatures in every department with the proper equipment. The unit that became extremely hot yesterday (5 West) has had all of the patients removed off of that unit and into a different unit. Rooms that are above temperatures on the open units remain empty. Spot coolers have been strategically placed to help with the temperature and humidity. The chillers are working, however, one of the units is operating below capacity and they are currently working on repairing two air handlers that require parts.”
Greg Zimmerman is senior contributing editor for FacilitiesNet.com and Building Operating Management magazine.
