The plumbing system is a vital feature of a hospital. While the hospital plumbing systems itself have to be simple in plan and dependable, it is all the more important to plan the operational effectiveness of the parts of the plumbing system to make sure that they work correctly for years to come.
A healthcare system can be extremely challenging and the hospital plumbing system should be planned in a way to meet a variety of demands and challenges offered by the hospital. The hospital plumbing systems must meet the technical stipulation particular to all hospitals and also the various principles, codes, etc. that will allow the staff of the hospital to preserve the works of the hospital plumbing system effortlessly.
The plumbing systems of hospitals are exceptional and comprise equipment which that have distinct preservation needs and for the hospital to function well, it is vital to understand its plumbing structure and its working. We will be discussing the various components that contain a hospital plumbing system in this article.
Hospital Plumbing System
Central Sterile System
The central sterile system needs a huge water supply for the hospital’s surgical equipment and the plumbing system has to be designed to contain the varying needs of the central sterile system. Frequently, satellite sanitization rooms are situated near the operating theatre (OT), so that the surgical tools is cleaned, sterilised and returned to the OT swiftly, instead of transferring the surgical tools and equipment back and forth to a central sterile system that is situated in a number of other parts of the hospital.
The drainage dump load also goes into the central sanitary system and given that the equipment takes in the water and eliminates it fast, the drainage system must be satisfactorily large to handle the high flow or it should contain a holding tank that holds the seepage and allow measured drainage. The central sterile system have to be equipped with water softeners and backflow stoppers.
Steriliser System
In a hospital, many essential areas such as the OTs, nurse stations, procedure rooms, gastrointestinal areas, etc. are capable with sterilisers that are set up for washing and rinsing probes at temperatures of around 71oC-82oC. The steriliser system have to make sure that the water distributed to these sterilisers have to be at the least level of temperature and the water have to be preserved at the exact temperature for the whole duration of the sterilisation sequence.
The sterilisation system have to be equipped with valves for mixing, controlling the temperature and to stop backflow. The backflow gear must be kept and tested once in a year to make sure that it is working correctly.
Laboratory System
Purified water is an important part of pathology, lab testing, etc. in the hospital. The plumbing system for laboratory use should be designed in such a way that the water connections, also as the system for water sanitization, do not permit the backflow of the water and is isolated in such a way that there is no human contact once the water leaves the laboratory.
Depending on the purpose, hospital laboratories require different kinds of water. Most require RO (reverse osmosis) water, but a number of functions may require deionized water and so the way in which the water is processed for laboratory use becomes significant.
There are a lot of decisions that hospitals have to make such as, can the system function by means of filtered public water or do you need a number of filters to make highly filtered water? Do you require a third-party vendor to administer and sustain the system or can the repairs be managed by the hospital workers?
The hospital staff, though, is frequently responsible for the water, substance and waste that leave the laboratory and the acid-neutralising systems and point-of-use are utilised. Laboratory wastes have diseases and chemicals, that can multiply and to check this, monitoring points are necessary that are associated to the BAS or the building automation system and if there is any break down that occurs with any of the mechanism of the waste management system, the services management team must be informed right away.
Emergency Hospital Plumbing System
Hospitals regularly have 3 varieties of emergency plumbing systems i.e. eye/face washes, eye washes and emergency showers depending on the particular hazards in each region. These washes and showers have to be tested each week to make sure that they are operating correctly. There are also detailed rules for how these systems have to function for instance; flow rate, the temperature of the water, spray patterns, types of devices, etc.
Nowadays, in the active world of healthcare, dependable, easy-to-maintain and proficient plumbing systems are of the furthermost priority that can allow the competent functioning of the hospital with no shutdowns, which can be quite luxurious and hinder the hospital’s efficiency and competence, and potentially place its patients at jeopardy.