WATER PURIFICATION
RO system for endoscopy decontamination upgrade
Lorraine Gledhill, Business Development manager, Healthcare Decontamination, at Veolia Water Technologies, explains why the company’s OSIRIS reverse osmosis platform, specifically developed to provide biopure water for sterile services, was selected by the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust when it upgraded the existing endoscopy decontamination facilities at Warwick Hospital.
A safe, effective, and productive endoscopy service is critical to providing excellent patient care and ensuring full compliance with regulatory standards. However, ageing reprocessing equipment can often lead to failed washing cycles and longer turnaround times, delaying procedures and becoming a source of frustration for medical staff. While more regular maintenance or a refurbishment can provide a temporary solution, a complete upgrade is often necessary in the long term, as a new installation at Warwick Hospital demonstrates. Endoscopes support a wide variety of medical procedures, making them an indispensable tool for medical practitioners. As a result, endoscopy services are dependent on a rigorous, fast sterilisation process to meet the operational and clinical demands of a busy hospital environment. As reusable, invasive devices, endoscopes require a reliable and consistent decontamination process to ensure that patients, staff, and visitors, are protected against infection, as well as to prevent the surface of the instruments degrading and becoming a habitat for bacteria. The following case study highlights the steps that Warwick Hospital took to upgrade its decontamination
process, including securing a new, reliable biopure water supply to meet demand from faster washing cycles.
Patient safety a primary goal South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT) employs over 4,000 staff, and serves a population of half a million people who live in South Warwickshire. The Trust’s acute services are predominantly located at Warwick Hospital, including A&E, intensive and coronary care units, diagnostic and pathology departments, and medical and surgical inpatient and outpatient departments. SWFT identifies patient safety as a primary goal – supported by rigorous infection control protocols and targets to minimise cross- contamination – alongside a commitment to carrying out treatments and procedures in a timely manner.
A new water purification system – in this case using reverse osmosis technology – was central to the upgrade of the endoscopy decontamination service at Warwick Hospital.
78 Health Estate Journal October 2018
Drivers for the endoscopy decontamination system upgrade A key challenge facing any hospital is knowing when to choose to upgrade equipment over continued, frequent maintenance. Due to the volume of endoscopy procedures and the rigorous washing cycles, automated endoscope reprocessors (AERs) are put through their paces, and, as with any other equipment, will deteriorate over time. The age and wear and tear on the AERs within Warwick Hospital’s decontamination unit meant that it was no longer able to offer the speed of service necessary to support the endoscopy unit, despite a refurbishment five years earlier. Decontamination took 45 minutes, and the systems regularly failed to complete a wash cycle, leading to daily inconvenience for staff. At the same time, the Trust had expanded and diversified over the previous decade, and the demands on the endoscopy unit had increased. The SWFT management team recognised that a complete overhaul of the decontamination equipment was essential to ensure patient safety, and to meet the ever-increasing demands that would be placed on the service in years to come.
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust’s acute services are predominantly located at Warwick Hospital – including A&E, intensive and coronary care units, diagnostic and pathology departments, and medical and surgical inpatient and outpatient departments.
Finding a new location The business case for upgrading was readily approved, and the project timeline was helped along by the news that the chemical for the existing AERs was soon to be discontinued by the manufacturer. While the need to upgrade was in no doubt, the challenge became one of space and logistics. The Trust wanted a larger room with improved, natural lighting, to create a better working environment. The new location needed to be as close to the endoscopy unit as possible to reduce the need for transportation, which increases turnaround times and the potential for recontamination. After exploring a number of possible locations, the solution came on the back of a drive to go paperless by 2020. A large room adjacent to ‘Endoscopy’ housed the medical records library and – as documentation for services became electronic – the library could be divided in two, offering up one room for the endoscopy decontamination plant. The new location offered a smooth transit from point-of-use through to cleaning and sterilising the instruments, supporting quick turnarounds and improved efficiency.
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