Emergency power supply in medical facilities

In any medical facility, even the most modern, a situation can arise when a sudden power outage during equipment start-up can disrupt the stability of a diagnostic station or medical apparatus. A momentary lack of power supply from the power grid can mean problems for the doctor in making a proper diagnosis, or even in sustaining the patient's vital functions.

This poses a major challenge for hospitals and other medical facilities, which are expected to be fully operational under extreme conditions, when it comes to selecting power equipment. Given the dependence of hospital and clinic operations on electricity, the need for reliable solutions has never been greater. When power is lost - whether due to storms, heat, tornadoes or other external events - patients' lives are put at risk. To solve these problems, an emergency power system must be well planned.

Emergency power supply in the medical industry

According to the guidelines, the power supply of medical facilities should have a main power supply and a backup power supply.The grid operator that supplies the electricity is not responsible for having an additional power supply, the so-called backup power supply. Having such a power supply is beginning to become a standard in many medical facilities. The selection of power systems as a backup source is dictated by the requirements of the medical institutions in question, power requirements and current regulations. Paying attention to the design It is worthwhile to design it in such a way that this emergency power supply for the medical industry is efficient and effective.

Types of emergency power supply

Backup power supply in medical institutions (emergency power supply) during a power failure in a medical facility, operating room or treatment room, takes over the role of the main power supply, which suddenly stopped working for various reasons beyond the control of the facility owner. Emergency power supply should be "prepared for the customer" taking into account the normative conditions and regulations for a given institution, facility or building.

UPS (backup) power supply for the healthcare segment includes:

• UPS uninterruptible power supply systems
  UPS power supplies, which are able to guarantee full power supply uninterruptedly until the completion of running processes or for a few to several tens of minutes of switching to another source of backup power, such as a generator set.

• Generating sets (gensets).
  Generators are that segment of the power system that creates generating capacity but is not offered by Stovaris.

• Switchgear for medical rooms
  For medical facilities that require constant availability of power supply in the so-called class 0s - with automatic inverter - from 3 to 10 kVA, complying with the required IEC 61439 standard as a comprehensive solution.

• Battery Batteries
  Battery batteries for starting a generator set for the duration of certain activities or operation of systems, with the required time of automatic power switching from uninterruptible to single seconds, such as battery batteries for emergency lighting or security systems.

Medical UPS power sources offered

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) so called uninterruptible power supplies are devices that provide electricity at the time of a power outage or voltage fluctuation in the network, virtually uninterruptible power supply with stored energy for the time necessary for the safe termination of the operation of critical equipment or for the start-up of generator sets and their readiness to take over the full load. The converters used in medical UPSs use power electronic components along with energy storage which are sealed lead-acid, gel VRLA or flooded VLA battery banks. The backup time of a few to several tens of minutes is usually sufficient. In situations where a longer time is required, larger battery banks are used to provide backup power for up to several hours.

• UPS emergency power supplies for medical stations

The first product group offered in UPS uninterruptible power supply for the healthcare segment, are devices that support medical diagnostic stations. These are used to maintain continuous operation of a given station and serve to protect data during power failures.

Preferred device: Eaton Ellipse PRO UPS.

• Operating room power supplies

Operating rooms and digital imaging in operating rooms require special power supplies to support the operation of equipment during surgery, and they must comply with UL 60601-1 for medical-grade emergency power supplies. They should have a built-in isolation transformer that provides full isolation while maintaining AC surge protection in all modes. Also important is the ability to silence the alarm/silent alarm control when used near patients.

Preferred device: Eaton (Tripp-Lite) SmartPro UPS.

• Power supplies to sustain operation of medical imaging equipment

Health care facilities require reliable power sources to sustain critical medical equipment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment, computed tomography (CT) scanners, X-ray machines, gas analyzers, ultrasound scanners and all imaging equipment must be connected to a UPS for reliable operation. What's more, state-of-the-art, advanced diagnostic systems require large UPSs to provide adequate power.

Preferred device: Socomec Masterys GP4 HC UPS.

• Power supplies for IT infrastructure maintenance

An important element of any medical facility is the ITC infrastructure that provides and protects medical data to selected devices. All this system architecture requires additional power supply protection, here we usually use server-based uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) in RACK type enclosures for appropriate cabinets. When managing the power system in our facility, we should equip it with specialized PDU strips whose task is to manage energy and turn on and off the devices to which they are connected. With the help of these strips it is possible to secure the power supply and measure and control energy consumption, as well as monitor the current environmental conditions of our IT infrastructure and Data Center.

Preferred device: Vertiv Liebert GXT5 UPS.

This group of products is based on the companies' solutions:

Eaton | Socomec | Tripp-Lite | Vertiv