A severed fiber-optic line knocked out phone and Internet service for several hours Wednesday at Mercy Regional Medical Center.

The outage occurred about 12:30 p.m. Internet service returned about 4 p.m. and phone service returned about 6 p.m., said David Bruzzese, spokesman for Mercy.

CenturyLink was called to repair the line.

People who called the hospital received a busy signal.

The hospital has procedures in place to deal with incidents such as this, Bruzzese said. It relied on redundancies in the system, including using cellphones and text messaging, he said.

The hospital also has direct communication with EMS and emergency dispatchers.

“Our ability to respond in an emergency situation hasn’t been impacted,” Bruzzese said. “It’s been a little inconvenient, but we’re able to operate. Impact has been limited.”

shane@durangoherald.com