MEDICAL OXYGEN SUPPLY


the-clock’ oxygen monitoring, but who don’t have flowmeters installed, it can supply and fit one or more ultrasonic clamp-on or permanently plumbed-in integral models. The FLO2


box is then


connected to the flowmeter, or a number of meters if they are in sufficiently close proximity. The data read is transmitted back to the SHJ servers using the mobile phone cellular data network, and the flow rates of each meter, along with a ‘totaliser’ (and line pressure readings if required), are then displayed via SHJ’s cloud-based customer data portal, K’nect. The FLO2


system can also generate


on their medical gas pipeline system using portable clamp-on meters, thus enabling users to see for themselves ‘the value of instant, easy access to such vital data’.


‘Flowmeter ‘agnostic’ Stafford Scopes said: “FLO2


can be used


in tandem with any type of flowmeter; we are ‘manufacturer ‘agnostic’. We recently, for instance, installed nine flowmeters at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, all of the integral, rather than the clamp-on variety; the former tend to be much more accurate.” Plumbing in an integral flowmeter, he explained, ‘might typically take a couple of hours’.


I asked him about the technology used within the FLO2


boxes. He said: “All the


technology and AI integrated into FLO2 is the invention of my SHJ colleague, Professor Gaoyong Luo, who is also a Professor of Communications at Brunel University in the UK, and at Guangzhou University in China. An acknowledged expert on 21st century communications technology, such as 5G, Internet-of- Things-enabled devices, and AI, he previously, for example, played a key part in developing our original ‘intelligent’ plant monitoring system, Empower, and the medical gas alarm monitoring and alert system, Evolution. He has also helped us continuously develop and improve the K’nect customer portal.


36 Health Estate Journal June 2021


graphs and other ‘charts’ to show usage throughout the past four weeks. Users wishing to read line pressure as well as flow rates need simply to plug a pressure transducer into an existing NIST connector, without needing to shut down the system, and hard-wire it to the FLO2 box. They can then see how the line pressure is responding to system demand. Trigger points are set at preset pressures and flow rates, which allows SHJ to send text or email alerts to the relevant healthcare estates or nursing personnel. K’nect is free to all the company’s contracted customers, up to a maximum of five users, and SHJ says a typical supply and installation of clamp- on flowmeters can be completed ‘within about four weeks’. It is also happy to send engineers to hospital sites to demonstrate FLO2


Individual line monitoring “At Doncaster Royal Infirmary, where we recently installed nine FLO2


boxes linked


At Doncaster Royal Infirmary, SHJ recently installed nine FLO2


boxes linked


to integral flowmeters, enabling staff there to monitor nine ‘take-offs’.


“All the circuit boards in the FLO2 hardware are our own, and to date it has proven an extremely reliable system.”


The first systems The first six FLO2


systems, Stafford


Scopes explained, were supplied to the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, two each for the Trust’s St Mary’s, Charing Cross, and Hammersmith Hospitals, and were installed earlier this year. He elaborated: “The Trust, and specifically our main contact there, head of Estates Operations, Shane King, to whom we also supplied an oxygen concentrator last April to help boost oxygen capacity at Charing Cross Hospital, purchased some Flexim ultrasonic flowmeters as part of the recent NHS Oxygen Prioritised Resilience Programme and upgrade by BOC of its VIEs and associated plant early this year. However, Shane and his team had no easy means of then automatically collecting the data from the flowmeters, which is why he approached us. This led to my colleague, Professor Luo, developing FLO2


.” He added: “We know


there are ways to connect a hospital’s MGPS flowmeters to a building energy management system, but that can be quite an expensive and slow process, whereas the FLO2


box simply bolts on,


and starts sending readings the same day.”


In addition to the FLO2 units supplied to


Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust, SHJ has since supplied the ‘boxes’ to the Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital, and to Doncaster Royal Infirmary. I wondered how many


to integral flowmeters, the staff can monitor nine ‘take-offs’, so can see, for instance, that distribution pipe number one normally uses, say only 100 L/min, while distribution pipe number two may use 200-300 L/min, and so on. You can thus pinpoint any changes due to high demand, which can be a distinct advantage. The main risk, however,” he continued, “is not necessarily a high flow rate, but rather the VIE’s vaporiser and control panel not being able to cope with it.”


I asked whether, typically, an FLO2 box


would be needed for each flowmeter. Stafford Scopes replied: “It depends on how near the flowmeters are to each other. If, for example, in a system with nine flowmeters we only had to run 100 metres of cable to each, you could have one box picking up the data from all the meters.”


Accessible from anywhere via a web browser


Of the accessibility of the flow and pressure data to a hospital’s users, Stafford Scopes added: “The data is accessible from anywhere with a web browser via our K’nect portal to all authorised personnel. Since the first installations of FLO2


boxes a large acute hospital might need for optimal results. Stafford Scopes said: “That depends very much on their VIE, and the size and length of the medical gas pipeline infrastructure. Interestingly, during the pandemic, we found that if the fit of some of the patient CPAP masks wasn’t great, or the masks were loose, a lot of oxygen can be wasted. At Charing Cross Hospital, we were able to pinpoint flow rates going high, and then go to certain areas within the hospital where they had COVID patients, and identify high use.


FLO2


early this year, we


have seen a good deal of interest, largely due to many more hospitals installing flowmeters to monitor oxygen flow rates. Users of the system range from those responsible for the safe and continuous supply of oxygen to clinical areas – normally the Estates engineers, to senior clinical managers on the ward. We believe the system – which is simple both to install and use – offers such personnel considerable benefits, both in time saved taking manual readings, and in giving them an accurate, up-to-the minute picture of the oxygen flow and pressure in their system. They can also very easily look at historical data for a previous period, compare current flow rates, and then, if necessary, take remedial action to avert a situation where there might be a risk to the oxygen supply.”


hej


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