After the filing of a bill March 4 to exempt hospitals from rolling blackouts, Steve Love, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council (DFWHC) was interviewed by Janet St. James in a March 6 report on Ch. 8, WFAA-TV.

Love applauds Senate Bill 1139, filed late Monday by State Senator John Carona (R – Dallas). The bill was in response to rolling blackouts that affected more than two dozen hospitals on the morning of Feb. 2, 2011 during the Super Bowl week ice storm. All of the hospitals that lost power had generators kicking in minutes later, but computers stopped, medical equipment was disrupted, and operating rooms at 25 medical facilities briefly went dark at Baylor Health Care System, Methodist Health System, Parkland Health and Hospital System and Texas Health Resources.

“It could have absolutely been life-threatening,” said Love. “Currently, there is nothing on the books, as [far as] a law that says they’re exempt. What it does say is that they are critical-care facilities, and they should be some of the very last people subjected to rolling blackouts. That is not what happened on February 2nd.”

On Feb. 2, Super Bowl venues, including Cowboys Stadium, were kept on the grid on purpose. Oncor officials cited security risks as the reason. Power company officials say back then, hospitals were just low on the list, not last.

James is the health and medical issues reporter for WFAA-TV.

The report can be found on WFAA.com’s website at http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Proposed-Bill-Protects-Hospitals-from-Rolling-Blackouts-195701441.html.