WATER PURIFICATION Selecting suppliers
Warwick Hospital decided to purchase six new AERs from its existing supplier, as it had been happy with the service provided by it over the years. A new water purification system was central to the upgrade, as AERs rely on a consistent supply of pure water for the final rinse. The AER supplier recommended Veolia Water Technologies (Veolia) as its preferred partner for the venture, having worked with and relied on the company’s water treatment technology for previous projects.
Veolia recommended its reverse osmosis OSIRIS platform, which was specifically developed to provide biopure water for sterile services. The system delivers a standard throughput of 1,200 l/hr – rising to 2,400 l/hr during peak times – which is more than adequate to meet the needs of the decontamination unit, as well as providing extra capacity to support a seventh AER in the future, should it be needed. Skid-mounted for ease of installation, the platform includes a bespoke 800-litre permeate tank, and was configured to an L-shaped design to conform to the allocated space in the new plant room. In addition, the proximity of the RO system to the AERs minimised the ring main, reducing the overall capital outlay for the project, and the installation was designed to allow easy access to all components of the system for routine servicing.
Meeting and exceeding requirements The International Organization for Standardization specifies that final rinse water used for disinfecting instruments that come into contact with the bloodstream must be regulated stringently, and have an endotoxin specificity of <0.25 EU/ml. In the UK, Health Technical Memorandum 01-06 requires such devices to be cleaned with pure water with <10 cfu/100 ml. Staff at the Warwick Hospital’s Endoscopy Unit had confidence in the control and compliance of the microbiologically pure water provided by the RO system, due to several key features of the OSIRIS platform:
The OSIRIS RO system delivers a standard throughput of 1,200 l/hr – rising to 2,400 l/hr during peak times.
n Twin inverter drive ring pumps continuously recirculate the water into a UV disinfection unit, followed by an ultrafiltration process, ensuring high quality, pure water that consistently surpasses the regulatory standards.
n High efficiency reverse osmosis membranes provide reliable water purification.
n Automated self-disinfection of the permeate tank and entire ring main – which can be set to run out of hours if desired – minimises downtime for maintenance.
n Programmable alarms to monitor water quality and system performance pre- empt any potential problems to the water supply.
n Carbon footprint and water sustainability assessments help the hospital achieve its targets for chemical usage, wastewater and CO2
reduction.
A modern, thriving endoscopy unit Nine months after installation commenced, the AERs and OSIRIS system were in place and ready to go live. As the location of the new plant room was separate to existing arrangements for decontamination, there was no disruption to the Unit’s ongoing service. Veolia engineers provided training on the new system, and telephone support was subsequently available to troubleshoot any issues or questions that arose as the staff grew in familiarity and experience with using the AERs and OSIRIS. Susan Ward, Endoscopy Unit manager, said: “The installation and commissioning went brilliantly – I didn’t even know the engineers were there. We didn’t encounter any problems, and the turnkey solution gives us the consistent water quality and reliability we need, enabling us to reprocess endoscopes in under 20 minutes.”
Increased throughput The OSIRIS reverse osmosis system in situ.
Since the refurbishment of Warwick Hospital’s Endoscopy decontamination unit, patient throughput has significantly increased. The new AERs provide a 17-minute washing cycle – a vast
Lorraine Gledhill
Lorraine Gledhill, Business Development manager, Veolia Healthcare Division, joined Veolia Water Technologies in 2008, bringing with her a wealth of experience gained during over 28 years working in the water treatment sector, specialising in the design, installation, co-project management, and service works, of water treatment systems. This includes both standard installations and bespoke set-ups for critical applications, such as sterile and decontamination services, and renal, dental, boiler house, central heating plant, and pharmaceutical industry systems. Her particular areas of expertise are water softeners, automatic carbon backwash filters, standard and ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection, and the production of purified, highly purified, and pyrogen-free water, as well as water for injection to meet international pharmaceutical standards.
October 2018 Health Estate Journal 79
improvement on 45 minutes with older machines – allowing the service to increase its activity levels to meet the unit’s demand. This has coincided with a shift to an electronic booking system for endoscopy, further enhancing the efficiency of the service as a whole. The unit is now running at 100 per cent capacity, and has extended its provision to include Saturdays to meet demand. The high quality water feed for the six new AERs guarantees peak flow to support the washing cycles, and the OSIRIS system has consistently delivered regulatory-compliant, purified water to maximise microbiological and endotoxin integrity, while minimising running costs. With failing, lengthy washing cycles now a thing of the past, SWFT has a modern, state-of-the-art decontamination unit to support its endoscopy service, helping it deliver on its promise of providing excellent patient care.
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