IMPLEMENTATION OF OXYGEN MONITORING SYSTEM DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC

Petrus Swanepoel

20 April 2021

COVID 19

Very little is known about the virus

We had to learn from other countries

We knew:

No Clinical treatment protocols was available.

The Virus is highly infectious

PPE

Isolation

Clinical infection protocols

Ventilation

Treatment is oxygen intensive

Consumption can go up to 10 times the normal consumption

Oxygen supply was an essential treatment

Every healthcare facility requires oxygen to treat COVID 19 patients

• Can the various oxygen suppliers produce enough oxygen for South Africa?

• Can the oxygen suppliers deliver to all the facilities if the demand goes up?

• How will the infrastructure of a hospital behave with this high demand?

• The main source of oxygen should be liquid oxygen

• Oxygen cylinders is not recommended for treatment

• Shortage of cylinders

South Africa’s Pre-COVID 19 Oxygen status

338

601

229 198

0

300

900

600

1,200

1,500

NovemberOctober

1,201

1,449

Tonnes/day

June July August Septemeber Decemeber

1,061

Medical oxygen demand vs. supply

Current baseline medical oxygen supply

Total oxygen demand

Increase production capacity

Redirect industrial supply to healthcare

Ward A

Theatre

Emergency Unit

Intensive Care

Ward B

Liquid Oxygen Plant

Cylinder Back-up System

Piping & Accessories

The basics of a healthcare oxygen system

Telemetry

The basics of a healthcare oxygen system

1kg of Liquid Oxygen

0.877l of Liquid Oxygen

Vaporizer 699.8l of Gas

1 x Large Oxygen Cylinder

= 7550l to 9000l

Theoretical

Threshold

Assessment of hospitals

The objective was to do a theoretical investigation to identify a

Facility’s maximum supply rate

Note that not one facility is the same

Treatment protocol can be different at various facilities.

Theoretical Evaluation

Liquid oxygen storage tank

The capacity of the vaporiser

Pipe sizes

Pressure regulator flow capacity

Number of backup cylinders and available time

The Challenge

The need:

Real time pre-warning system

The time frame:

Yesterday

“Speed is more important than perfection”

The Solution:

• Must be simple

• Use existing infrastructure

• Use existing manpower

The Solution

Use SCADA system

Use Telemetry system from Medical Gas provider

Interface the two systems

Develop simple format that can be used to evaluate consumption

Must be able to notify hospitals if consumption gets close to critical point

Must be able to “Roll-up”

The Solution

Each hospital should be able to:

• See the current consumption (kg/hrs)

• See the available oxygen in the tank (kg)

• Get an indication of available liquid oxygen at current consumption (days & Hours)

• See level of tank (%)• Get status with regards to current flow rate to the threshold

The Solution

The Solution

SCADA measures the Liquid oxygen tank level every 15 minutes

An average of the last 4 readings is used to calculate the hourly consumption

15 Minute Reading

100 99 98 90 80 60

Hourly consumption

10

19

38

The Solution ?

Example of hospital screen:

The colour of the blocks will change if:

• Tank level drop below 50%

• Current consumption gets within

10% of threshold

Graphs can also be generated from

SCADA

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Solution ?

The Team

The people who made it happen !!

Rowan Christie Albert Kasselman Christy van Eck Jan-Louw Engelbrecht

Technical teams at

the hospitals

Thank