2nd African International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management

Improvement of Hospital Airborne Infectious Isolation Rooms using IoT technology

Lance Roy
Publisher: IEOM Society International
0 Paper Citations
1 Views
1 Downloads
Track: Healthcare Systems
Abstract

Airborne infectious isolation rooms are a nursing barrier between an infectious patient and a health care worker.  The high prevalence of tuberculosis   with multidrug resistant Tuberculosis at 480 000 in the 2017 global TB report, makes Airborne Infectious Isolation Rooms (AIIRs) a health priority in the health sector. This paper presents the performance of Airborne infectious isolation rooms using Supervisory control and Data Acquisition and IoT.  The performance of 20 AIIRs are evaluated over 12 months. Two AIIRs fitted with Supervisory Control and Data Aquisition equipment using the Internet of things (IoT) technology  are evaluated and compared to standard AIIRs and the performance evaluated for this period. The  SCADA system is  linked to a secondary extraction system as well as local and remote  smart alarms. The  various rooms are interogated using both scada and  Tracer gas analysis to analyse and understand the performance of an Airborne infectious isolation room over  various conditions in a South African context.

The results of this research show that  SCADA and IoT technology when applied to Isolation rooms improve the performance of the  AIIR and improve the overall life cycle of the room . The overall human component to maintenance is reduced significanly by the online data. The cost of installation and maintenace of electronics is significantly reduced by emerging technology. The cost of IoT technology when compared to expensive PLCs and proprietry systems reduces the construction costs of AIIRs with smart alarms and monitoring. Raspberry pi and Arduino platforms have simplified the user interfaces and configuration requirements. The technology required for smart platforms is now plug and play, simple and easy for the struggling and pressurised maintenance team.

This paper explores AIIR design, the use of IOT technology and addresses  common points of  failure of negative pressure rooms after comissioning by the project team. The research aims at  providing a cost effective solution to protecting health care workers exposed to AIIRs.  The use of smart phones, APPS and IoT is apart of  our modern work and this research embraces this technology to find a cost effective improvemnt for isolation rooms.

The results show a marked improvement of the AIIRS fitted with smart technology when compared to other AIIRs functioning on the convential technology without IoT.

This  research aapplies  modern technology   of IoT to Airborne infectious Isolation rooms for an improved and safe environment for Health Care Workers.

 

Published in: 2nd African International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Harare, Zimbabwe

Publisher: IEOM Society International
Date of Conference: December 7-10, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-7923-6123-4
ISSN/E-ISSN: 2169-8767