Decontamination goes up in the world

Installation of a new £3.1 million, state-of-the-art Sterile Services Department (SSD) has been completed at Yeovil District Hospital with the aim of improving efficiency, increasing throughput and ensuring high standards of decontamination. Space constraints at the hospital demanded a novel solution that was capable of addressing a number of challenging requirements. The original sterilisation facility was located on level two of the building, which meant that contaminated equipment had to be transported down three levels from the operating theatres; the existing facilities were also coming to the end of their lifespan and would not comply with HBN13 guidelines, while an increase in throughput for potential future expansion was also required. To address these issues, Cfes was contracted to design and install a modular SSD onto the roof of the existing A&E department which would provide the hospital with a fully operational on-site decontamination and sterilisation unit. Once the design and approval of the new SSD unit had been agreed, further modular units, encompassing an endoscopy decontamination suite, were commissioned by the Trust.

The solution

Traditional building methods would have meant disruption, and possible relocation, of the busy A&E unit which receives over 40,000 patients a year. The solution, therefore, was to design and build modular units off-site, which Cfes lifted into place and connected together. By lifting in the modular units over a three-day period, Cfes ensured that the hospital’s critical services, such as A&E and operating theatres, were able to carry on their usual workload with minimal disruption. Cfes also worked closely with other providers to deliver a state-of-the-art solution. This included the provision of five Belimed WD290 single chamber pass-through washers, together with one WD750 large scale trolley wash. There are also three Belimed 28 cubic foot MST passthrough sterilisers, although the unit has been designed to enable the provision of four, to enable future expansion. The Belimed washers and sterilisers are linked to a central infection control system, which provides automated receipt and generation of batch documentation for both the washer-disinfectors and sterilisers. The infection control system is also linked to the track and traceability system (Scantrack Healthcare), which provides for each cycle automated generation of cycle number and pass/fail for the batch. In the endoscopy suite, Lancer has installed two ED Flow AERs and an FC2 fibro cleaner, single chamber, double scope machine, in addition to new drying cabinets. The Lancer drying, storage and security cabinets enable storage of up to eight scopes each, and combine HEPA filtered ventilation with indirect UVC. This allows the scopes to be stored in secured areas of the existing day theatre area of the hospital for up to 72 hours. The new 580 m2 unit now allows for a capacity of up to 20 staff and has increased potential throughput capacity by introducing more efficient washerdryers and sterilisers. Overall equipment capacity has also increased. Furthermore, as the new unit is now adjacent to the operating theatres and day surgeries, turnaround times can be increased.