The challenge
Theatre air handling, chillers, generators, UPS units, medical-gas alarm panels, cold rooms and pharmacy fridges each have their own controller or alarm panel. Several only alarm locally, in plant rooms that are empty most of the night.
During load-shedding the generators and UPS units carry theatres and ICU, but confirming that every changeover worked means walking the building. A failed cold room or vaccine fridge may only be found the next morning.
Accreditation audits ask for temperature, humidity and pressure records for theatres and cold storage. Today those come from paper logs and separate data loggers.
Our approach
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Critical systems register
With the engineering and infection-control teams, we list every system whose failure affects patients, what normal looks like, and who must be told when it isn’t.
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Connect what exists
Existing controllers and alarm panels are read through gateways or their alarm contacts, so nothing clinical is replaced or reconfigured. New sensors fill the gaps, such as theatre pressure and cold-room temperature.
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One alarm system
All alarms land in one redundant SCADA system with priorities. Critical alarms escalate by SMS and phone call to the technician on duty, then to a supervisor if nobody acknowledges them within minutes.
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Records for audit
Theatre temperature, humidity and pressure, cold-room temperatures and every generator and UPS changeover are logged automatically and reported monthly for accreditation.
System architecture
How the layers connect, from the people using the system down to the equipment in the field.
- Technicians on duty (SMS and call)
- Engineering manager
- Infection control (audit reports)
- Redundant SCADA servers
- Prioritised alarm list
- Audit reports
- Dedicated OT network, separate from clinical IT
- PLCs per plant room
- Gateways for existing BMS and alarm panels
- Theatre AHUs and pressure
- Generators and UPS
- Medical-gas alarm panels
- Cold rooms and fridges
What we’d deploy
- Theatre temperature, humidity and pressure monitoring
- Generator and UPS changeover monitoring during load-shedding
- Medical-gas alarm panel outputs brought into one alarm list
- Cold-room and pharmacy fridge temperature monitoring
- Alarm escalation by SMS and call, with acknowledgement tracking
- Automatic records and monthly reports for accreditation audits
Target outcomes
Targets we would design and report against, not measured results from a named client. Actual results depend on the baseline established in the audit.
