OXYGEN SYSTEMS
transmitted via simple 4-20 mA output, or via a communications bus, such as BACnet or Modbus, to the local building management system, where there is usually some form of interface presenting a real-time dashboard of oxygen use for the use of estates or clinical staff. Some hospitals even have remote tablet dashboard displays and emailed or texted alarms sent to relevant personnel, including the MGPS Authorised Person. The greatest advantage in the application of the FLUXUS G721CA clamp-on flow meter, however, is the ability to install without any shutdown to the critical delivery of oxygen. All commissioning takes place on live, working oxygen delivery pipes, with zero interruption to daily hospital care activities.
In combination with integration into local MGPS or BMS systems, the instantaneous oxygen flow data from the Flexim meters allows real-time usage data in each hospital ward, along with total site usage for local effective management of critical oxygen demand. Data such as live, peak, and average flows across various legs of the hospital’s oxygen system can all be fed into the operational command to assist with proactively managing the oxygen being prescribed to patients based on the known limits of the oxygen system. Anecdotal evidence from current Flexim meters installed at numerous UK and Irish hospitals indicates that real-time flow data from the Flexim G721CA meter is a better management tool than the calculated consumption from a single pressure transducer at a frequency read of once every hour and only available on a daily basis. Overall accuracy can be improved with additional fine tuning of input parameters as system dynamics are better understood, or, where oxygen pipework systems allow pipework modification, the installation of pressure and temperature sensors to provide dynamic measurement compensation will deliver optimum flow measurement performance.
Andy Hammond
Andy Hammond, managing director at Flexim Instruments UK, has been involved in process instrumentation for close to 40 years. His career has spanned activities ranging from flow measurement solutions on the major North Sea developments of the 1990s, through to fiscal systems in Scottish Whisky distilleries, via level and flow systems for floating production storage and offloading vessels around the globe. In 2012 he established a UK subsidiary office for FLEXIM GmbH, a privately-owned German specialist manufacturer of non-invasive clamp-on flow metering. UK utility suppliers such as gas distribution networks have been a key customer for clamp-on gas metering solutions, and, since 2016, the UK water industry has also been a key focus for Flexim Instruments UK. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company has assisted NHS Trusts with easily retrofitted clamp-on instantaneous flow measurement of oxygen.
Portable meter variant While Flexim has installed over 100 medical oxygen system flowmeters (including some dual channel units measuring two separate adjacent pipes for greatest economy), there is also a battery-powered portable meter variant, the G601CA Energy, that has been supplied to numerous hospitals. This device allows installation on a multitude of hospital oxygen delivery pipes of varying sizes, typically anything from 15 mm to 108 mm BS EN 1057: R250, Table X medical copper tube. The meter has an internal data logger capable of storing weeks’ worth of measurement data, and producing reports for further efficiency and optimisation processes. Better still, this portable G601CA Energy meter doesn’t solely measure oxygen flow, but can also: n Meter other medical gases, including 7 bar critical surgery medical gases.
n Flow meter liquid flows around the hospital, e.g. hot or chilled water flows, diesel flow to generators or boilers, etc.
n Produce energy audits, measuring not just flow, but also by measuring temperature on the supply and return legs of boilers, CHP, or other heat exchangers, and delivering instantaneous measurement of kW energy usage.
We at Flexim are proud to be playing our small part in the fight back against COVID-19, and supporting our UK health service during this period of unparalleled demand. Our easily retrofitted oxygen metering systems provide the real-time data and confidence that hospital teams will be alerted in good time if an individual line to a critical ward, or even the entire system capacity, stability, or supply, are at risk. Flexim can provide support directly with hospitals, via expert VIE manufacturer consultants and BMS system integrators, regarding our clamp- on oxygen metering solutions and their usefulness as a valuable clinical management asset, helping to maintain a high level of assurance on hospital oxygen delivery networks.
hej
January 2021 Health Estate Journal 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
