Banner-UMC Tucson diverts new trauma patients after electrical problem

Southern Arizona's sole Level I trauma center was in trouble July 14 when smoke started coming from an electrical panel in the basement, according to Tucson.com.

After an electrical panel in the basement of Banner-University Medical Center Tucson (Ariz.) started issuing smoke around 1:00 pm, hospital officials began diverting new trauma patients to Banner's UMC-South Campus, also in Tucson.

At 8:30 pm, Banner-UMC Tucson's electrical generators started working again and it began accepting trauma patients, according to David Lozano, a Banner Health spokesperson.

The hospital stopped admitting new patients to the ER for a few hours after 1:00 pm, but its other departments were functioning as usual, Mr. Lozano added, according to the report.

The Tucson Fire Department believes "an overloaded circuit breaker may have caused the outage," said Corey Schubert, a Banner Health spokesperson in Phoenix, according to the report.

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