Showers and thermostatically controlled taps for hand washing and surgical preparation designed and manufactured by Rada, the commercial division of Kohler Mira, have a major presence in the new West of Scotland Heart and Lung Centre, which has opened at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.
Showers and thermostatically controlled taps for hand washing and surgical preparation designed and manufactured by Rada, the commercial division of Kohler Mira, have a major presence in the new West of Scotland Heart and Lung Centre, which has opened at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.
The Golden Jubilee National Hospital was established in 2002 with the key aim to reduce swaiting times for surgery and diagnostic tests across Scotland. Since that date, capacity has more than doubled, with the new specialist centre spread over three inpatient floors of the hospital.
To date, Rada has supplied over 300 of its unique Rada Sense hands-free, digital controls with their no touch, infrared control panels. These are fitted in the hospital’s en-suite single inpatient rooms and throughout the wider clinical areas, including two operating theatres, four cardiac laboratories, intensive and high dependency units and a cardiology unit.
In addition to the Rada Sense installations, there are over 150 Rada Unatherm-3 basin mounted thermostatic surgical mixing taps and 150 Thermotap-3 thermostatic mixing taps used in patient and public areas. Both of these taps are TMV3 approved, combined thermostatic mixing valve units, the Thermotap being a single lever operated unit.
The Unatherm features locked temperature control and high or short neck spouts depending on the installation. It also features Biocote anti microbial technology based on an active silver agent.
The Golden Jubilee National Hospital has had no proven incidences of hospital acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the past three years.
Single inpatient rooms, strict hand washing guidelines and the use of alcohol hand gel helps the hospital to control infection, while all their housekeeping staff report to the senior manager for Infection Control. Every patient staying for 24 hours or more is screened on admission for a number of potential problems, including MRSA.
Maggie McCowan, Senior Manager of Infection Control, said: “We have a good track record when it comes to controlling the risk of infection, however it will be a challenge to maintain this now that the West of Scotland Heart and Lung Centre is fully operational.
“Providing a clean and safe environment for our patients is vital if we are to continue to reduce the risk of infections to our patients. Using these state-of-the-art systems from Rada Sense alongside our existing processes and techniques will help us to do that.”
The Rada Sense controls will play a major ongoing role to help staff continue to reduce the risk of infection to patients, both in terms of reducing opportunities for transmitting hand borne infections and in maintaining the very highest standards in the hot water delivery system.
Rada Sense differs significantly from traditional ‘no-touch’ controls because not only does the control panel eliminate risks of cross infection by allowing the user to initiate water flow, it also allows the selection of the water temperature without touching the panel.
For safety, precise maximum and minimum water temperatures and flow times can be pre-set using a remote hand held computer (by maintenance staff) and these settings are maintained even if there are water pressure or temperature fluctuations.
There are also a number of functions that allow the maintenance team at the Golden Jubilee to maintain best practice in the hot water systems that supply the showers throughout the facilities.
The Rada Sense digital mixing valve incorporates an intelligent ‘duty flush’ feature that monitors the time since the outlet was last used. If it has not been used for a pre-determined time (say 24 hours) the appliance is automatically flushed through at a safe temperature to clear water that may have been stagnant in the pipe work or, more importantly, in any dead legs. The non use period, flush temperature and duration can also be pre-determined and logged in the mixing valve.
To comply with The Health and Safety Commission’s ‘AcoP L8’ directive, routine thermal disinfection as a means of preventing or controlling legionella is also recommended. With Rada Sense this can be achieved by activating the thermal disinfection mode which – under supervision – allows hot water at a temperature of at least 60°C to be flushed through the digital mixing valve and all outlet pipe-work – a process that is simply not possible where conventional TMV’s are fitted.
The Rada Sense disinfection procedure is activated by a hand held computer which, by using the Sense’ T-logic intelligence, instructs the valve to allow high temperature water (at least 60°C) through the unit to the outlet. It then records the temperature and duration and produces a log of the disinfection process that can be stored on a PC.
Other key features of the Rada Sense T-logic technology include a facility that performs 5 safety checks, 40 times a second, a ‘lock out’ facility that activates if a fault is detected and a second temperature sensor that will close down the system if for any reason the water temperature exceeds a safe level. The mixing unit is supplied factory-set to comply with TMV3 safe temperature settings for hospitals.
In these critical areas high vigilance has to be maintained to eliminate contamination and the possibilities for it occurring.
Data from the hand held computers can be downloaded into the hospitals buildings management system to provide the most comprehensive overview of the maintenance schedules necessary to maintain the hot water system.
The Rada products were specified through Atkins Group who are the primary specifier for Acute Scotland.