The biggest healthcare system in Northern Michigan is being impacted by the severe weather. Some Munson Healthcare Clinics are closed, but all hospitals remain open.
Munson’s Grayling, Gaylord, and Charlevoix locations all have generators that turned on once the power went out.
However, to preserve power they are asking people to only come to the hospital if there is an emergency or if you are running low on a medical treatment like oxygen. Munson Healthcare is working to call all patients whose non-emergency appointments are cancelled.
Dr. Joe Santangelo, Munson Healthcare Chief Medical Quality and Safety Officer says they are prepared for situations like this.
“The good news is, we kind of have preparations for those generators to run for a couple of days. We’ve got enough fuel on hand to make sure that we’re not going to run out imminently. So that’s the plan for the hospitals. Most of our clinics or our offices don’t have generator backups. So there what we do is understand if there’s anything there that we need to preserve, like medications that are in refrigerator, and we go get those and make sure that we secure those in a, in another location.”
If you are unsure if a Munson Healthcare Clinic location is open for service click here for more information.