Midlands Specialist Private Hospital is the premier medical precinct in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands of South Africa. They are passionate about their patients, believing in providing a quality lifestyle. The way the hospital ensures that they achieve a quality lifestyle is by giving their patients access to their skilled nurses and doctors, while remaining agile, compassionate and empathetic to their needs. Personal care is what sets Midlands Specialist Private Hospital apart. The hospital also has great facilities! Since 1988, their passion has continued to grow.
OTEK first approached the Midlands Specialist Private Hospital through Lenny Mudaly, Hospital Manager who has the enormous responsibility of daily operations plus keeping running costs down. Lenny is well known throughout the private hospitals of KZN and his opinions and decisions are respected and followed by many of his peers among hospitals of KwaZulu-Natal. With that large responsibility Lenny required a lot of convincing on the value of using OTEK for daily laundry operations especially as he was the first senior person in the hospital sector in the whole of South Africa to take on the technology.
Strict parameters were set for the demonstration to quantify the benefits of OTEK in the laundry.
To confirm energy savings electrical meters were installed on one 27kg Speed Queen washing machine and energy consumption monitored for one week on the existing hot water programs followed by one week on OTEK cold water sustainable programs. To confirm savings on the dryers electrical meters were connected to one dryer and readings were taken after drying loads after hot washes and cold-water washes. To ensure an effective installation and ongoing performance Lenny assigned the monitoring to Maria de Lange, Laundry Manager with many years of experience running a high standard hospital laundry. After receiving feedback from Maria, Lenny made the important comment for any company providing a product and service “OTEK was adding value to the hospital.”
The project certainly proved beneficial, demonstrating how possible it was to make substantial savings. Electricity savings confirmed with electrical meter connected to the Speed Queen 27kg washing machine. Average hot non OTEK wash used 2.5kWh per wash. Average OTEK cold wash Used 0.3kWh Electricity per wash on washer extractor.
In addition to the electricity saving on the actual washing machines is the electrical savings on the hot water service. The washing machines no longer fill with hot water from the geyser / hot water service adding more to the kWh saved per wash. Another benefit of saving this hot water from the geyser other than the electricity reduction is the hot water is available for other important areas of the hospital. There were further electrical savings on the dryers. Electricity savings confirmed with electrical meter connected to the Tullis dryer, the newest and lowest user of electricity: on the Ozone wash drying the electrical usage was on average 0.5kWh per drying cycle. By comparison the drying of loads on hot water programs washed without ozone used 1.5kWh per drying cycle. A 40% reduction. Another great win for the hospital and the environment is the saving of our precious natural resource, water. By removing steps water consumption was reduced from 730 litres per load to 421 litres. A total of 309 litres per load or 8.58 litres per kg washed with prewash and one rinse removed.
The OTEK system gives the hospital more time for laundry operations. As an example, the OTEK cycle time for sheets and towels is now 38 minutes compared to the previous wash cycle time of 67 minutes – a very significant productivity saving. Added to this the reduction in drying time from 19 minutes to 12 minutes saving a total time of 37 minutes per wash load. According to Maria de Lande “the laundry machines wash much quicker and even the dryers finish quicker.” Time can be focused on other important aspects of the daily workload, thus making it a ‘win-win’ for both management and staff.
All-important bacteria testing was carried out giving Lenny great confidence in delivering a high level of standards compliance in line with SANS 10146. Bacterial testing was done with a clear pass on all swabs; no bacteria present in the cold water before drying. Whilst Lenny is delighted with the new system, the team in the laundry are also very appreciative; Maria de Lange has seen a transformation in the operation of the laundry since the implementation of OTEK and confirms why both her and Lenny can see how OTEK is adding value to the hospital laundry.
“The laundry uses less chemicals and the linen and even the wash drum smells clean and fresh without using any softener. Installation was done quickly, professionally, and efficiently. Staff training was done timeously and professional. There was almost no disruption in my laundry and the clean quick wash results is of great value.”
Benefits
The Potential Savings on monthly washer operating hours at Midlands Specialist Private Hospital are as follows
• 42% watersavings
• 50% Productivity Savings
• 89%energy savings
• 42% Time saved
