Covid-19 is making oxygen management crucial for hospitals

The current Covid-19 pandemic is pushing healthcare to the limit – but oxygen management in hospitals has become a particular challenge for health systems worldwide. Within the healthcare environment, the safety of the healthcare providers and their patients is paramount.

When patients are hospitalised with Covid-19 they often need additional oxygen, and the logistics and sheer volume of this demand is forcing hospitals to take drastic action to manage oxygen use.

A recent BBC documentary, for which a film crew traced the impact of Covid-19 on the Royal Free Hospital in London, clearly shows how the problems of oxygen management are taxing front-line medics and NHS managers, and directly affecting patient care.

At the time of filming, 80% of patients at the Royal Free had Covid-19 and most were on supplementary oxygen at between five and thirty litres per second. As Rui Reis, operations manager for estates at the trust, explains in the film, the hospital used a month’s supply of oxygen in two days and was faced with the prospect of drops in the pressure of patients’ oxygen and in delivery levels – with potentially catastrophic results.

In more normal times, the hospital’s estates management could act to mitigate the problem. But all such actions would require a 4–6-hour shutdown of the oxygen supply.

And in a pandemic, that simply is not an option.

Striking a Balance

The Royal Free had never experienced such oxygen issues before, and soon realised that a balance had to be struck between reducing oxygen use and simultaneously maintaining patient care and the oxygen infrastructure. As a result, they took various measures, for example doctors decided to reduce target blood oxygen levels from 92–94% to 90–94%, while giving clinicians the option to increase oxygen levels in line with patient need. And operations director Rachel Anticoni ensured that every oxygen outlet was closed off where possible to avoid leaks, rather like stopping a dripping tap.

In the film, Rachel Anticoni reports their solutions had reduced oxygen use by around 3,000 litres per minute.

Gas monitoring makes the difference

The Royal Free offers a fine example of how good gas management can improve outcomes and operations. This is something that Crowcon knows about, because we already supply hospitals with our oxygen detectors – these provide early warning of  oxygen-riched environments (which can be an explosion risk) and can also be used to detect the leaks that drain oxygen capacity.

To summarise:

  • The Covid-19 pandemic means that hospitals must now use unprecedented amounts of oxygen.
  • This has caused them to struggle with capacity and mitigate against unnecessary use to ensure supplies are sustainable.
  • Crowcon oxygen detectors can help, by warning hospitals of oxygen leaks and preventing the occurrence of oxygen-rich environments.
  • In this way, gas monitoring protects health system resources and patients alike.

Find out more about Oxygen risks in healthcare environments in our infographic here.

If you want to know how we can help with monitoring oxygen use to ensure supply or prevent oxygen rich environments pose an explosion risk, our experts can help, please get in touch.