The current demands on healthcare administrators and caregivers call for holistic solutions to infection control in hospitals and healthcare facilities. Integrated monitoring systems provide the needed tools to meet regulatory guidelines and ensure the highest level of environmental control and safety.
Within the context of a global pandemic, the ability to control healthcare facility environments is more crucial than ever. The implementation of automated differential pressure sensors, coupled with temperature and humidity monitoring for air quality and temperature monitoring for refrigerated storage, is critical to the management of airborne contaminants and ensuring that samples and medications are properly handled.
Here is what facility managers need to know:
Environmental Precision and Safety Through Room Pressure Monitoring
An essential step to control infection within a healthcare facility is to isolate contaminants. The use of negative pressure isolation rooms is critical to preventing the escape of contaminants from areas where infected patients are being treated. By creating air pressure differentials between isolation rooms and adjacent areas, airborne infections can be contained and mitigated. As air particles naturally flow from higher to lower pressure areas, the pressure difference between rooms prevents outward air flow.
The OneVue Sense Differential Pressure Sensor solution effectively monitors air pressure to help minimize the spread of infection. The use of precise differential pressure sensors, such as OneVue Sense, provides assurance that airborne contaminants do not enter or escape a space and ensure your facility maintains compliance with infection control policies.
The critical nature of these isolation rooms means it is not enough to have only periodic check-ins to ensure differential pressure has remained consistent. Instead, automated differential pressure monitoring allows the consistent analysis of air flow, alerting hospital facility managers and caregivers when parameters fall out of range. This eliminates the need to dedicate additonal resources to manually monitor the integrity of a room’s conditioned environment, allowing crucial caregivers time to focus on patient care.
Temperature and Humidity Control for Environmental Integrity
In addition to monitoring differential pressure to ensure the efficacy of isolation and clean rooms, it is critical for facility managers to monitor temperature and humidity to maintain control of indoor air quality across the entire unit. The OneVue Sense Temperature and Humidity Sensor provides assurance that conditions meet environmental requirements for disease control, as well as staff and patient safety. This ensures that every area of a hospital is compliant with environmental best practices, keeping everyone safe both in and outside of isolation rooms.
Temperature Control for Critical Medications and Samples
In parallel with patient isolation and managing the environment to control disease spread, the proper storage of medications, laboratory samples and vaccines plays a critical role in the treatment and elimination of infection. Temperature fluctuations can compromise the viability of samples or the efficacy of medications. Specific requirements for storage must be maintained to support patient care and create effective outcomes of infection treatment. The OneVue Sense Temperature Sensor monitors storage conditions, records data and alerts staff to changes that are out of range.
Moisture Control in Field Hospitals
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for alternative care sites and field hospitals during elevated healthcare demand. Where permanent facilities have extensive design and engineering planning processes, temporary facilities are constructed under severe time and resource constraints. The building envelopes and HVAC systems of permanent hospitals offer substantially higher levels of moisture control than alternative care sites and field hospitals.
At the same time, temporary healthcare facilities must adhere to similar levels of environmental control in order to be effective. Water leaks into treatment areas are of greater risk, and moisture control is more vulnerable in these settings. The placement of OneVue Sense Water Leak sensors throughout temporary facilities can alert staff to any compromised areas and ensure prompt remediation.
Primex OneVue Sensing and Monitoring System
At the forefront of environmental monitoring solutions is the Primex OneVue Monitor which provides automated remote monitoring of all environmental control data. As a comprehensive healthcare data solution, the system can be configured with temperature/humidity, differential pressure, temperature, water leak and contact closure sensors to meet all the requirements for infection control and policy compliance.
OneVue sensors can be easily installed throughout a facility with minimal effort. The sensors are designed to be portable and can be quickly removed for use in a different location if needed. Combined with the OneVue Monitor software application, the system can be customized to capture relevant information, create targeted data reports and send alert notifications to system administrators via call, text or email.
Increasing demand and regulation for infectious disease control have reached unprecedented . Immediate operational needs deserve precision tools and resources that support the objectives of patient care facilities. Preparedness for pandemic management has become an essential part of all hospital and healthcare facility operations, requiring immediate operational needs for precision tools and resources to support the objective of patient care facilities.
For additional information about how you can implement Primex OneVue solutions, please contact us today!
References:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/infection-control/infection-prevention-control-faq.html
https://www.ashe.org/negative-pressure-rooms
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/environmental/background/air.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/alternative-care-sites.html