STERILE SERVICES FACILITIES
so that’s every three months for the quarterly, and then annually. I’m also contracted to fully assess the machines to ensure their integrity and reliability above and beyond the requirements of the documentation. The lack of issues shows that this is worthwhile. There were only a couple of minor issues when the temporary unit went live, which is what you might expect.” He added: “The performance of a machine is only as good as your last engineer. If you send in a good engineer, problems tend to disappear.”
Deep cleaning
Once commissioning was completed, the facility was ready for a deep clean. When the chosen, relatively nearby contractor was unable to deliver the service, SSD’s Garth Rowbottom put in an emergency call to Mel Robson of SteriSystems. “Mel got me out of a tight spot,” said Garth. “With a colleague, Mel drove down from Scotland overnight, deep cleaned the facility, and went back north the following day. He did a sterling job.”
The deep clean used the SteriAir mobile whole room decontamination unit, which is designed to provide medical professionals with a highly effective and adaptable means of infection prevention and control, using low dose hydrogen peroxide. The technology allows the disinfectant to be in contact, by displacement, with surfaces to be treated, including those which appear to be inaccessible. SteriAir is a dry solution, so all electronic equipment remains safe. SteriAir is certified to the NF T72-281 (2014). As part of the decontamination cycle, SteriSystems used its own high- level disinfectant that meets the latest EN Standards on contact times. Garth said: “I’m qualified to operate a particle tester, and to undertake the drop plate and touch plate tests. Anderson Caledonia analysed the results and confirmed that the cleanroom had achieved the required standard. The results were passed to the Trust’s AP(D), Mark Walters, who approved it being a Class 8 clean room. In fact, the standard achieved for the production room of the temporary facility was better than the existing packing area of the hospital.” He added: “Initially, there were some water quality issues which required further testing. These were undertaken out of hours by 20/30 Labs. “This was typical of suppliers throughout the programme. They constantly ‘pulled out all the stops’ to help the hospital achieve its tight timeframe.”
Describing his approach to meeting the Trust’s requirements, Garth Rowbottom said: “It was critical that the small, temporary facility kept going to serve the Trust’s operating theatres. Because of the nature of the unit, the equipment didn’t
The temporary sterile services facility is connected to the department’s track and trace system.
need to be high-tech, but it did need to be robust and be proven to be reliable. Based on those criteria we specified Envirogen for the RO units, which were already installed across the hospital site, and Franke’s DEKO washer-disinfector- dryers, with their proven reliability. “The final scheme was actually the sixth phase of the plans, and the one that the Trust team eventually agreed met its operating criteria and budget. As things progressed, we were asked to add in validation, supported maintenance etc. “Once we got to stage of people saying yes, we looked for the appropriate contractors. It’s easier to negotiate a better rate with existing suppliers and contactors to the site than to bring in a new team.
“Envirogen is a well-established RO supplier to the Trust. Likewise, JPS Services, who handled the M&E under the direction of Technical Projects manager Lee Williams. Audere Medical Services was already contracted for equipment service and commissioning.” Garth Rowbottom added: “I’m really proud of our reported-fault-to-repair KPI
‘‘
Maintenance followed an old-school NHS approach. We ran maintenance on the basis of weekly
checks, and monitored any deterioration in performance
time. It stands at just six hours three minutes, which is incredibly fast. I know Soby Joseph is impressed with it. “The unit has performed so well that Theatres didn’t know it was on site for a while. It’s met everything Theatres have thrown at it, which I think is a great compliment to the unit, and the hard work of the decontamination team under very trying circumstances.”
Explaining the philosophy of SSD, Garth Rowbottom said: “Our aim is to make the difficult achievable, and to get the job done without any fuss. As a company, we are committed to the task. Our approach is always: whatever the problem, we will solve it, but you should give us a budget to work within. We’ll never charge more than the agreed price, so you may have to make compromises.
“From the start, we were very clear about who was doing what, and who would put it right. In many instances when there were issues, our team at SSD put them right. It’s just part of what we do to keep things moving as smoothly as possible.”
Old-school NHS approach Garth Rowbottom noted: “Maintenance followed an old-school NHS approach. We ran maintenance on the basis of weekly checks, and monitored any deterioration in performance. For example, if a temperature fail was imminent, we had the replacement part on hand, rather than waiting for an issue to develop. Likewise, with drainage time, we had a new drain strainer on hand ready to put it in at the next water test. We analysed all the reports, and looked for any potential deterioration in performance.
October 2019 Health Estate Journal 123
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 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160
