Wireless detection system intercepts packs before they enter the wash cycle
Thanks to a scoop of ingenuity, the JGH Laundry has found a way out of a very sticky situation.
For years, a seemingly small but significant problem haunted staff in the Department of Laundry and Linen Services: The risk that a gel-filled positioning pack from one of the operating rooms would burst during the laundering cycle.
About 145 loads of dirty linen make their way along the conveyor belt into the JGH Laundry each day—nine tonnes of scrubs, sheets, gowns, towels, mops and rags that are essential to keeping a major hospital like the JGH running cleanly and smoothly.
But over the years, gel packs that are used to position patients during surgery would find their way into the bundles. These packs survived the wash cycle intact; trouble began at the water-extraction phase, a step best described by Laundry employees as “the squish.”
Unlike a home washing machine that wrings out water during the spin cycle, an industrial-sized laundry facility like the JGH’s uses a hydraulic press to squeeze water from linen. Like the plunger of a French-press coffee maker, the press descends with pressurized force onto the laundry, draining out the water and condensing the bundle into a compact cake.
The gel packs didn’t stand a chance.
They burst, discharging their contents like gooey grenades into the laundry equipment. Operations came to a standstill. Delays could last hours, even a day, as staff laboriously cleaned the equipment from the goopy mess.
“It gummed up the works, literally,” recalls David Diachidos, Chief of Laundry and Linen Services. “Everything stopped. It took hours of scrubbing to clean it up.”
Mr. Diachidos thought there had to be a better way. And he has devised one that has proven so effective, it’s now attracted interest from the Buanderie centrale de Montréal, the non-profit organization that handles laundry for most hospitals on the island of Montreal.
Mr. Diachidos wanted a system that would wirelessly detect the gel packs as they approached the laundry room—what might be called a gel-pack early warning and detection system. He turned to the IoT (Internet of Things) lab at the Université du Québec à Montréal to refine the set-up, and ABG Systems to provide the equipment. Then he secured the collaboration of the Nursing and Infection Prevention and Control teams at the JGH.
How does the system work? Tiny, high-frequency tags are placed on the gel packs and held in place with adhesive film. (These packs, which come in different shapes and sizes, are designed to support patients during surgery). Meanwhile, three square antennas were placed at the tunnel-like entranceway to the laundry room, where bundles of linen from throughout the hospital arrive on a conveyor belt. The antennas emit high-frequency waves that can pick up the tags’ radio signal from as far away as 15 metres (50 feet).
If a pack approaches, the system sets off an alarm with a flashing red light and siren.
Each time that happens, laundry staff react with cheers and slaps on the back: It means they’ve captured a wayward gel pack.
“It’s amazing,” Mark De Leon, a Washman, said as he prepared a bundle of linen for laundering recently. “This is the best thing to happen to us, because it means we won’t fall behind on our job. When a gel pack used to explode, it could set us back the whole week.”
Terry, who has worked as a Mechanic in the Laundry service for over 50 years, says the gooey mess from the burst packs was the worst problem he encountered in his half-century career. “It was hell,” he says. “The clothes were ruined, the conveyor belt was ruined, my uniform was ruined. Everything it touched was ruined.”
Since it was implemented in 2021, the detection system has prevented an estimated 25 packs from entering Laundry. While the numbers aren’t huge, the benefits are.
For one, it has boosted staff morale. A burst gel pack paralyzed the Laundry service, halting staff’s workdays and leaving them unable to carry out their jobs. “I have a phenomenal team, and when they couldn’t work, it was demoralizing,” Mr. Diachidos explains. “We all work toward a common goal, and everyone is motivated to get the job done.”
There are cost benefits as well: Mr. Diachidos estimates it cost $14,000 in material and labour each time a gel pack burst; for 25 captured packs, that amounts to $350,000 in savings so far.
And, most critically, the system has ensured that the laundry team can meet its mission of delivering quality care to the hospital’s patients by ensuring an uninterrupted supply of sheets, gowns and other essentials.
“If you can’t send laundry up to the floors, it can be catastrophic,” Mr. Diachidos explains. “You can’t provide patients with proper hygiene without towels. No one’s going to lie on a stretcher without sheets on it. A surgeon won’t go into the operating room without scrubs, and cleaning staff can’t disinfect rooms without mops and rags that we clean in Laundry.”
Mr. Diachidos credits Georges Bendavid, Director of Technical Services, for supporting his idea and allowing him to turn it into reality. So far, thanks to his unique system, “we’re batting a thousand”—in other words, not a single goo grenade has evaded detection. All it took was an inventive solution, conceived at the JGH in the service of staff and patients, to take the risk out of the squish.