Healthcare facilities, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, surgical centers, doctors’ offices, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and life sciences facilities, require safe, clean water in order to provide optimal care for patients and to protect healthcare workers. Everything from equipment sterilization, food services, HVAC, operating rooms, laundry, laboratories, and intensive care units need clean water to operate safely and minimize infection risks.
These specialized healing centers rely on Garratt-Callahan’s (G-C) industrial water treatment expertise to meet the unique needs of healthcare facilities. Our ASSE 12080-certified healthcare water management experts are trained to understand, recognize, and address water quality issues unique to healthcare settings. Our teams understand the importance of conforming to the regulations, such as the ANSI/AAMI ST108 and other mandates set by the CDC and Joint Commission.
Water Treatment for Healthcare, Life Sciences & Pharmaceutical Facility Management
G-C has deep experience and provides the latest commercial water treatment technology available for all of the following healthcare water treatment system needs:
- Treatment of steam boiler systems to keep them clean, free of scale, and operating at optimum capacity.
- Pre-treatment and reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems to optimally purify water.
- Maintaining cooling systems to improve lifespan and functionality.
- Provide risk management against Legionellosis & other waterborne pathogens to optimize patient care and prevent infections, including those from new and emerging pathogens.
- Adhering to water treatment standards used in processing medical devices.
- With current challenges to the healthcare system, fighting waterborne pathogens has become an urgent concern for healthcare facilities, as well as the population at large. G-C water treatment experts are skilled and knowledgeable about these challenges and regularly advise healthcare facilities on ways to reduce these risks to protect their patients.
Healthcare Water Treatment Services and Systems
One of the biggest challenges in healthcare water management is ensuring that water treatment equipment operates at optimal levels. Furthermore, reducing waste while conserving and optimizing water use is a growing concern. G-C industrial water treatment services and systems for healthcare environments can promote the following benefits:
- Optimize water use in cooling towers, boilers, and RO systems
- Programs to reduce water use and improve equipment lifespan, equipment downtown, maintenance costs, and system performance.
- Ensure and manage water quality systems to comply with pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare regulations.
- Provide precise water quality monitoring on a consistent, constant basis.
- Reduce waterborne pathogen risk to personnel, patients, and visitors to your facility.
Water Management Programs
Garratt-Callahan’s healthcare water management experts understand the unique and high-level challenges that healthcare facilities face in keeping their water treatment systems running to regulations and beyond. We have comprehensive water management protocols and teams that can help your healthcare facility, including:
- Assist in developing & implementing Water Management Programs (WMP)
- Provide ASHRAE 188-2015 compliant WMP Products
- Train staff on all aspects of your WMPs to ensure compliance
- Use secondary disinfection with chlorine dioxide
- Provide Point of Delivery (POD) barrier filtration
- Ensure third-party, CDC-Certified, elite lab Legionella sampling & testing
Water Treatment Certifications
It’s critical to choose a healthcare water management partner who understands all of the pressures and regulations under which you operate. You want a partner who cares just as much about the needs of your patients and staff as you do. This is why it is important to check for the following certifications, both for water treatment equipment and service providers. Garratt-Callahan maintains the following certifications to keep current with all of the latest regulations and technological developments:
- ASSE 12080 Water Safety training – Committed to over 200 G-C employees trained and certified on this new standard of excellence. This certification is becoming more and more important for healthcare facilities managers.
- Certified Healthcare Facility Manager (CHFM) – Certified personnel with proven administrative expertise in optimizing a healthcare facility’s physical environment and operations that ensure patient care.
- ISO 9001:2015 indicates superior quality commitment, ensuring our customers consistently receive the highest quality of water treatment products and services.
Water Safety Programs for Healthcare Facilities
G-C provides comprehensive healthcare water management services and support that can help your healthcare facility achieve these critical objectives to protect your patients and healthcare workers alike:
- Legionellosis risk detection and mitigation
- Comprehensive water safety programs
- Provide experienced water treatment leaders and Certified Healthcare Facilities Managers (CHFM) with the tools they need to protect their patients.
Garratt-Callahan started with servicing the boilers that powered steam-locomotives of the Industrial Revolution. Our expertise in industrial water treatment service continues today for all types of industries and facilities. Our water treatment expertise — demonstrated through on-site consulting, chemical applications, equipment maintenance, and customer service — is more than just 100+ years old. Our client relationships are built on fairness, honesty, and integrity. By thoroughly understanding your needs and challenges, we can roll up our sleeves to find sustainable solutions that work.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cost to healthcare facilities to fight infectious waterborne disease in the U.S.?
According to the CDC research, most hospitalizations and deaths were caused by biofilm-associated pathogens (nontuberculous mycobacteria, Pseudomonas, Legionella), costing US $2.39 billion annually. New waterborne disease challenges have emerged from aging infrastructure, chlorine-tolerant and biofilm-related pathogens as well as increased recreational water use. These estimated costs are calculated from total illnesses, emergency department visits, hospitalizations, deaths, and direct healthcare expenses for 17 waterborne infectious diseases. Garratt-Callahan’s comprehensive water management services support healthcare facilities in mitigating the risk of waterborne pathogens and safeguarding equipment in the water treatment process.
What are the components of an effective Healthcare Facility Water Safety Program?
The first step in creating an effective water safety program begins with establishing a Water Management Program Team, identifying persons responsible for plan development and implementation. Subsequent components of an effective water safety program also include:
- Documenting Water Systems / Flow Diagrams – Describe in detail the potable and non-potable water systems in the facility and develop water system schematics.
- Analysis of Building Water Systems – Conduct a systematic analysis of hazardous conditions in the building water systems.
- Control Locations – Determine the locations in the system where control measures are required.
- Control Measures – Determine control measures to be applied to the control location.
- Control Limits – For each control measure at each control location, establish and determine the limits, including but not limited to a maximum value, minimum value, or range within which a chemical or physical parameter must be monitored and maintained in order to reduce hazardous conditions to an acceptable level.
- Monitoring – Establish a system for monitoring the parameters associated with the control limits established.
- Corrective Actions – Establish the corrective action(s) to be taken when monitoring indicates that the control parameters are outside the established control limits.
- Confirm Program Implementation (Verification) – Establish procedures to confirm that the Program is being implemented as designed.
- Confirm Program Efficacy (Validation) – Establish procedures to confirm that the Program effectively controls the hazardous conditions.
- Documentation and Recordkeeping – Establish documentation concerning all procedures and maintain records as appropriate.
Garratt-Callahan’s Water Safety team are experts in guiding healthcare facilities in all aspects of developing, documenting, and implementing their plan through comprehensive onsite analysis, consulting, and monitoring.
What are some best practices for minimizing the risk of Legionella, Mycobacteria & other waterborne pathogens?
Having an effective and comprehensive Water Management Program in place is the first step as it will identify risks and ongoing activities required to mitigate future risks. Once you have a plan in place, healthcare facilities must fortify their water treatment regimens with Secondary Disinfection utilizing chlorine dioxide.
Lastly, your commercial water treatment approach should be holistic, addressing Point of Delivery (POD) / barrier filtration and throughout equipment input and output channels.