Hospitals, both large and small, encompass complex systems—including critical piping systems such as potable water and medical gases . On average, these systems house between 15 and 50 valves per 500 feet of pipe. But, in most healthcare facilities, 20% of all valve locations in a given system are unknown and undocumented. In an emergency, that presents a serious problem. The amount of unknown and inaccurate information found in existing records (that is, if they do exist) poses a challenge to maintenance staff, third party contractors, and, of course, facility safety.
The Realities of Hospital Piping Systems
What you don’t know can hurt you—and your patients. Healthcare facilities face:
- Daunting facility size and complexity
- Inaccessible pipes and valves
- Aging infrastructure
- Unsafe pipe materials or conditions
- Poor documentation
- Interconnections between potable and non-potable systems
- Improper bypasses and missing backflow preventers
- Uncontrolled modifications
Pipes often aren’t configured as they should be and fall out of compliance (due to maintenance and remodeling) with state plumbing codes or relevant equipment requirements. Those codes and requirements exist for a reason. Healthcare facilities should maintain compliance for both accreditation purposes and to promote patient and employee safety.
Want to learn more about how healthcare facilities can prevent Legionella contamination and proliferation with accurate, up-to-date, and accessible piping schematics? Watch HydroCorp’s on-demand webinar, “A Holistic Approach to Legionella Prevention: Knowing Where the Pipes Go.”
A System for Success
Gathering intelligence about your piping system acts as a first step to protecting your potable water supply from contamination and Legionella proliferation. So, what intel do you need? Conduct on-site, visual surveys to gain understanding of the system; develop clear and detailed piping schematics that reflect the current state of the system; and periodically validate the accuracy of your records to continue providing safe patient care.
Beyond Flow Diagrams
What about flow diagrams? You need them for compliance, but can they do the job of comprehensive schematics?
Flow diagrams provide a general, high-level map of the piping system and how it reacts with other systems. While essential, these diagrams are not a navigational tool: They have limited real-time information and can’t identify system problems.
Conversely, schematics provide an in-depth look at your system and serve as a map, guiding you to valves, helping you identify dead legs and other areas of concern, and aiding renovation and expansion planning. Operationalize your piping schematics to make them useful across departments, in service of compliance, and as a daily tool in your facility. Make the schematics accessible to maintenance teams, contractors and vendors, and facility managers so the maps can be useful and promote safety.
Effective schematics should include:
- All sections of potable water systems
- All valves, safety devices, and sensors
- All actual connections
- Relevant conditions or problems
- Identified hazards and recommendations for corrective actions
An Effective Action Plan
So, how do you accomplish this in your healthcare facility? Take steps to establish a proactive, sustainable plan suited to your facility’s size, needs, and staffing levels. From conducting on-site survey(s) to developing the schematics, you can’t tackle everything at once.
Start by defining what schematics you need, how they’ll be used, and the protocol for maintaining them. Don’t create schematics for their own sake; be prepared with an understanding of what needs to be documented, any issues you need to identify, and how and when you’ll take corrective action.
If you had accurate schematics, who would use them and how? Determine what departments will benefit from the schematics and get their input on what’s needed early in the process. Set parameters, standard operating procedures, and a timeline to drive momentum long after you decide you need schematics.
Work closely with all involved departments on an ongoing basis. Recognize that the introduction of schematics will change the way you operate. A new navigational approach allows increased safety and improved operations, but a culture shift inside your team may be necessary. It’s worth it to better protect your water, your facility, and your patients.
Want to learn more about how schematics can help protect your healthcare facility from Legionella contamination? Watch “A Holistic Approach to Legionella Prevention” to learn more.
