Why this Management Centre is unique
The centre is planned in such a way to ensure maximum safety for the healthcare staff while being based on international infection disease management principles, Dr. Dimuth Ponweera tells
detailing how both administrative (work practice) controls and environmental controls are in place.
The administrative controls include: Management measures that reduce the risk of direct exposure of staff to patients; a safety control and patient communication room with intercom facilities, CCTV and patient monitoring system; a robot worth Rs. 1.2 million donated by Atlas Axilla (Pvt.) Ltd., to minimize staff exposure to patients when handing out medicines and food; and staff-patient communication conducted with the help of a video conference facility with a monitoring system worth Rs. 1.1 million incorporated in the robot by CISCO systems, Millennium IT ESP and CISCOM Technologies.
The environmental controls include: · Physical and mechanical measures taken to reduce infection transmission; all patient entry/exit points, staff entry point to wards and doffing room cubicles protected with a double-door system (when one door is opened the other door closes) to ensure safety.
· Well planned and designed zoning which include Zone 1/Green Zone A – staff rest rooms and dining; Zone 1/Green Zone B – Staff working area including control room (Green Zone A and B separated by an inbuilt corridor); Zone 2/Yellow Zone – Staff area is separated from patient area; Zone 3/Red Zone – Patient area which consists of four wards (one female and three male wards) with a total of 40 beds.
Going into specifics, Dr. Ponweera says that the building uses the existing central air-conditioning system based on ventilation and pressure management principles of airborne infectious diseases management. This is by the creation of a positive to negative pressure gradient from the staff zone to the patient zone (Green Zone to Red Zone).
With regard to ventilation, he points out that the physical separation between the Yellow and Green Zones makes sure that no air movement is possible between these zones. Even in the case of a breach in the physical barrier, the air movement would be from the Green Zone to the Yellow Zone, not the other way round because the pressure is positive in the Green Zone.
“The air flow is designed in such a way that clean air first enters the Yellow Zone and then goes to the Red Zone, after which it is cleaned with HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters, minimizing the risk of having infected air in the Yellow Zone. Negative air pressure is maintained in the Red Zone to ensure that no air moves from this zone to the Yellow or Green Zones,” explains Dr. Ponweera.
He says a heartfelt thank-you to Madhawa, Anuruddha and Omega of Chartered Architects [Independence Holdings (Pvt) Ltd.], for their advice; the input of Dr. Mahen Kothalawala; Dr. Supun Perera who designed the architecture at no cost; and well-wisher Chandana Fonseka who personally journeyed to the Hambantota Hospital to bring back the high pressure stabilization machine.