Intelligent Systems a Critical Investment Strategy Worth Adopting

By David Erczmann General Manager LinkSafe

In the last 18-months COVID has perpetuated dramatic change.

And with that change has come a seismic shift in expectation that has driven a different approach to how things are done to what they were in the past. Life pre-COVID is now a distant memory of days gone by.

But Australia’s Healthcare networks aren’t immune from COVID’s ravages and challenges either. Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital was forced to shut its entire oncology ward last year because of COVID and infected visitor to the Hospital.

So, stepping up the need for developing greater COVID strategies through implementing technology is vitally important.

Lockdowns fuelled by outbreaks, have become an inevitable part of life, and how governments react toward containing and managing the spread of COVID along with a vaccine program is designed to ensure every Australian is now vaccinated.

It’s building a secure fortress – guaranteeing protection for Australian’s but it’s also about fortifying Australia’s health network where health workers are playing a major role as the frontline of defence to protect the very people working to protect us and ensure their workplaces are COVID free – clear of the destructive challenges of an environment where at times, uncertainty reigns because of what is on offer.

Helping secure that fortress are contractors - and the vital role they play in ensuring hospitals remain safe and compliant where critical work still needs to be undertaken. Its ensuring a step isn’t missed in a beat of major significance.

Heartbreaking devastation carries with it a reasonable description of the despair that has been on show and the agonising pain of sorrow that has presented Australians.

Businesses destroyed, lives ruined and the sense of a failing hope of returning to a life that once was – life without restriction, anxiety, or fear.

It’s been a strenuous time for the healthcare network and around how it, and its members, manoeuvre a minefield where every step they take is laden with consequences if the wrong move is made.

Looking from the outside in, it’s hard not to feel for what a challenging time it continues to be for the healthcare network and the facilities they run.

Ensuring healthcare facilities remain operational and guaranteeing the safety and wellbeing of staff and contractors is critical. If healthcare facilities cease to engage contractors – it’s a disaster waiting with impending consequences.

Healthcare operators need to continue to operate and allow contractors to have access to sites and ensure they keep the maintenance of essential services across facilities functioning as though they weren’t in lockdown.

The welfare of staff and contractors continue to remain paramount regardless of whether lockdowns are imposed.

If anything, ensuring safety should be heightened. Employee and contractor safety doesn’t take a holiday because of lockdown enforcements – it’s an unavoidable move healthcare facilities must strategise for and deal with as a key priority.

Guaranteeing the operational maintenance of items and services like fire suppression systems, HVAC, clinical device servicing, health care operators, along with the other services that exist within healthcare networks, play a critical and vital role in safety and how efficiently they function.

Healthcare facilities must be fully functional and to ensure they are, contractors still need to have access regardless of a lockdown enforced.

Mitigating the risk of spread of infection of COVID amongst Healthcare networks, is an understandable concern. How they mitigate the containment of any potential spread also gets back to managing time spent by contractors on site and knowing where they are.

Planning by management around time and minimizing all contractor’s presence on site has to be an implementable policy enforced where staff and contractors understand the policy of what ‘on-site presence’ really means.

Time spent on-site for contractors can be limited by enforcing policy that ensures contractors do what they’re meant to do, rather than undertaking a face-to-face induction

process, contractors can safely do this online, away from a healthcare facility, to ensure that when they arrive on-site, they are compliant and ready to start work.

Fast and easy to use QR sign ins, tailored contractor inductions, managing contractor pre-qualifications, immediate induction information and ensuring total compliance all form part of a new frontier – technology that fortifies and adds another layer of protection.

It’s simplifying a process that eliminates the unnecessary time taken to induct on site - where adopting an almost strike-team like approach serves a purpose of guaranteeing efficiency but reducing any potential spread of COVID infecting an entire facility.

Smart policies and implementing intelligent systems where technology plays a critical role is an investment and strategy worth adopting.

Integrating technology where contractors, or health professionals sign into healthcare facilities that are capable of undertaking compliance checks simultaneously is technology that is here now. It’s a strategy healthcare operators must consider adopting in a COVID world that has changed how everything is done and the way we now live.

YOUR SOLUTION TO AS/NZS-4187 ENDOSCOPY COMPLIANT FINAL RINSE WATER

RECENT PUBLICATION AS PRESENTED AT THE ACIPC CONFERENCE: BIT.LY/ACIPCRA

TM AUTOMATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DELIVERING CONTINUOUS, BACTERIA-FREE RINSE WATER COMPLIANT WITH HTM01-06: PART A-E AND ISO 15883-4 MEETS AS/NZS-4187 TABLE 7.3 STANDARDS OPTIONAL REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM IN TRISTEL RA SERIES 3 GROWING GLOBAL INSTALL BASE EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING HIGH LEVELS OF MICROBIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION

Endoscope in EWD

1. Prefilters 5μm and carbon 2. RO membrane (RA Series 3 Only) 3. Large water holding tank (RA Series 3 Only) 4. Tristel RA Activator 5. Tristel RA Base 6. 0.2μm bacterial filter

POWERED BY CHLORINE DIOXIDE

Tristel RA doses low levels of Tristel’s proprietary chlorine dioxide chemistry into the incoming water supply used during an Endoscope Washer Disinfector’s (EWD) decontamination cycle. Chlorine dioxide is compatible with materials within an EWD at the concentration dosed by Tristel RA. Chlorine dioxide as dosed by Tristel RA does not damage endoscopes and does not affect the chemical composition and efficacy of detergents (including enzymatic) and disinfectants (including peracetic acid) commonly used in EWDs. PROVEN EFFECTIVE

One Endoscopy Department in Wales (UK) had four EWDs that were out of action due to high microbial counts. While considering Tristel RA, three laboratories were commissioned to take full water samples to assess water quality; results showed high Total Viable Counts (TVCs) after two days, with some as high as 236 (colony forming units (cfu)/100ml). These increased to more than 900 cfu/100ml after five days. Tristel RA was installed to dose two of the four EWDs in the department. Five days after installation, test results for water treated by Tristel RA showed zero cfu/100ml. Globally, hospitals with out-of-action EWDs have come back online with the installation of Tristel RA. TRISTEL RA IS MORE EFFECTIVE, MORE ECONOMICAL AND MORE RELIABLE THAN RO, BECAUSE: RA PREVENTS BIOFILM. RO DOESN’T. RA PROVIDES BACTERIA-FREE WATER. RO DOESN’T. RA REMOVES >6 LOG OF MYCOBACTERIA AND PSEUDOMONAS CONTAMINATION FROM INCOMING WATER SUPPLY. RO DOESN’T. RA DOSES CHLORINE DIOXIDE. RO DOESN’T. RA ACTIVELY PREVENTS MICROBIAL PROLIFERATION. RO DOESN’T. RA SAVES TIME, SPACE AND MONEY. RO DOESN’T. CHLORINE DIOXIDE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO ACTIVELY PREVENT AND BREAK DOWN BIOFILM.

TRISTEL NEW ZEALAND: +64 (0) 7 5771560 -mail-nz@tristel.com TRISTEL AUSTRALIA: 1300 680 898 - mail-au@tristel.com FOLLOW US: @TristelGlobal CONTACT TRISTEL AND ASK FOR OUR DEDICATED TRISTEL RA TEAM AND ENGINEER