Suez water purification systems ensure high purity water for IHSS sterilisation services

Published: 17-Jul-2015

With a requirement for high purity water in large volumes for direct use in the sterilisation of medical equipment, IHSS is using Suez Environnement’s water purification equipment in its UK facilities


Although many hospitals opt to operate in-house decontamination centres (otherwise known as a Sterile Services Department [SSD]), IHSS offers healthcare providers an effective outsourced alternative. IHSS uses the very latest decontamination and sterilisation technology to wash and decontaminate customers’ medical equipment, complying with industry standards and guidelines in the process.

All hospitals depend on the reliable and effective cleaning and disinfection of medical equipment to extremely high standards. High quality purified water plays a key role in ensuring that IHSS meets these standards, with the safety of patients at risk if medical equipment isn’t sterilised appropriately.

A study conducted by The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that approximately 9% of the patient population is affected by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), costing the NHS £1bn annually in England alone. Because of the risks to patient safety, stringent guidelines have been put in place that set standards of water purity that both in-house and outsourced decontamination centres must meet.

The IHSS approach is to use water in its sterilisation process that goes beyond the purity levels defined in the guidelines. This means that the systems it uses to purify water for use in application must not only comply with industry guidelines but also meet the high standards of IHSS.

To meet its need for large volumes of softened, purified water that went beyond the required compliance levels, IHSS installed two identical Suez water softeners and two identical Elite Plus reverse osmosis units at each one of its decontamination and sterilisation service facilities. At each facility, one softener and one reverse osmosis system are in constant operation, which is enough to provide sufficient water for the whole process. Secondary units are available at any time if the primary units are offline for maintenance.

Potable mains water is passed through the Suez water softener before being fed to the Elite Plus reverse osmosis unit to achieve the desired microbiological purity and conductivity; this is used to produce ‘clean steam’ for sterilisation, and in other applications for which high quality water is required, such as pre-rinsing and washing in washing machines.

Sandy Sayandan, Divisional Engineering Manager at IHSS, is delighted with the performance and reliability of the Suez systems: ‘Both units consistently deliver the high purity and volume of water that we require. They’ve been problem-free since installation and, thanks to the reverse osmosis unit alarm feature, we are confident that in the event that a problem were to occur we would be alerted prior to the sterilisation process being affected, bringing us and our customers peace of mind.’

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