DAVID MEACOCK – TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, CISTERMISER, UK WATER MANAGEMENT
Promisinga digitalwater management revolution
David Meacock, technical director at sustainable water management solutions specialists Cistermiser, explores how the evolution of water temperature monitoring systems harnessing the Internet of Things (IoT) is helping improve user safety and estate efficiency, and offers the potential to save the healthcare sector millions per year.
Nobody is in doubt that the next decade will see a technological revolution in the treatment and diagnosis of disease – from managing depression through wearable technology and monitoring and treating asthma with smart inhalers, to giving diabetics more control over their condition thanks to automated closed loop insulin delivery. The speed with which cloud technology is being adopted to provide solutions at every level within the healthcare sector is astonishing. Cloud technology is also being
deployed across many facilities across the UK to monitor water quality, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Remote IoT monitoring of water system temperatures and flow events can play a key role when building, re-commissioning, or repurposing buildings that have been temporarily mothballed in order to manage building occupancy levels safely in light of flexing demand – e.g., to reduce the risk of Legionella. In a broader context, although controlling the temperature of water has long been at the heart of anti-infection strategies, it has often been held back by an inability to gain a truly accurate view of water temperature. That is changing thanks to a generation of digital technologies which promise to revolutionise water temperature control in numerous commercial and healthcare facilities across the UK.
TMUs (Temperature Monitoring Units) continually monitor water system temperatures and flow events on a 24/7 basis.
The sheer scale of the challenge While healthcare estate teams are competent at undertaking risk assessments and water monitoring, many hospitals face significant staffing issues and are therefore unable to spare staff to undertake such temperature monitoring. It is not a lack of willingness or ability, just
David Meacock
With a career firmly rooted in new product design, development, and implementation, David Meacock has headed up the technical team at leading water management solutions’
provider Cistermiser for over a decade. David’s background is in Mechanical Engineering and supply chain management, which in turn have developed into championing new technologies such as LinkThru TMU. He is well-known within the water management sector for his innovative approach and commitment to raising standards on industry best practice.
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the sheer scale of the job when done manually. Healthcare estate engineers or even designated nurses are sent to attend washrooms and turn taps on and off at well-used and under-utilised outlets, take temperature readings at sentinel points each month, or perhaps even on a weekly basis, record the data, and then email or manually input the data into whatever collation method the organisation is using, such as an electronic logbook. Putting this in context, an estate engineer who is recording the data could have thousands of temperature readings to sort through, analyse, and, where necessary, respond to with remedial action each week.
Not only is this strategy open to human
error, but inordinate amounts of time are spent by staff who could be otherwise more valuably engaged – and the whole
IFHE DIGEST 2023
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