SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey


SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey

Causes of fire development and losses Causes of fire development and losses Causes of fire development and losses Causes of fire development and losses
Electrical short circuits dominate in terms of primary cause
This explanation covers a wide range of secondary issues
Insufficient flammability protection for wire & cable and other electrical
components
Any flammable elements in the vicinity will add to the fire load
Note advent of synthetic polymers in the last 40 50 years
Fires tend to propagate quickly in such circumstances
Smoke and toxic combustion gases are also killers
Often limited opportunity for intervention or escape
Hence fire losses property damage, injuries and deaths tend to be greater
than if fire is retarded


SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey
We would like to suggest following few steps to
planning ICU/SNCU in public hospitals:-

1. A dedicated earthing pit for the SNCU should be created. Earth resistance should
be measured twice in a year and logged. A log book to this must be maintained
at Maintenance department of hospital and a copy to be placed in SNCU records
room.

Suggested Timings in year are March and September of every year

2. Good Earthing must have low impedance enough to ensure that sufficient
current can flow through the safety device so that it disconnects the supply (
<0.4 sec ). Fault current is much more than the full load current of the circuit
which melts the fuse. Hence, the appliance is disconnected automatically from
the supply mains.
3. Qualities Of Good Earthing
a. Must be of low electrical resistance
b. Must be of good corrosion resistance
c. Must be able to dissipate high fault current repeatedly
4. Maximum value of Earth resistence to be achieved



Equipment to be Earthed Max. Value of Earth Resistance to be
achieved in Ohms
Large Power Stations 0.5
Major Substations 1.0
Small Substations 2.0
Factories Substations 1.0
Lattice Steel Tower 3.0
Industrial Machine and Equipment 0.5
SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey

5. A wall mounted digital display should be installed to show earth to neutral
voltage in the SNCU. This voltage should normally be within the range 3-5V.

PWD personnel should be informed immediately if this exceeds 5 V.
6. The manufacturer should be asked to mention in writing the quality of output of
the voltage stabilizers.
7. The power boards within SNCU should be marked to
show the phase to which it belongs. The SNCU staff
should take care so that the equipment are
connected in an evenly distributed manner to the
power boards belonging to three different phases.
8. At least two air-conditioners should be connected per room to emergency power
to take away the heat load in the case of power outage.
9. Smoke detectors with fire alarm as well as fire extinguishers should be installed
in the SNCU with proper testing and protocol to display.

10. Emergency exit or fire escape from the SNCU should be built without any
COMPROMISES. The emergency exit should be built in such a way that the
babies under treatment could be evacuated within a very small span of time in
the case of any emergency in the SNCU. A possible route of such escape is at
SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey
the back side of the feeding room of SNCU.

11. In case of fire, a write-up describing the procedure for emergency shut off, main
switch should be made available to SNCU staff members.
12. Fire extinguishers should be installed in the vicinity of the panel boards in front of
the SNCU.


13. The voltage stabilizers being the most important item in providing quality power
to the major equipment in SNCU, best quality material should be chosen for any
SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey
future procurement of such stabilizer. If possible, a back-up stabilizer may always
be kept.
14. The ethylene oxide sterilizer, portable X-
ray machine, autoclave and the hot air
oven be preferably operated from raw
power. Necessary raw power boards should be provided within the
SNCU.
15. Necessary information about the power requirement of the equipment should be
available, e.g., X-ray machine, autoclave, hot air oven etc.
16. The distance between two warmers be kept around 4 feet.

17. The load factors of different equipments:
One Radiant warmers (850 W).
One oxygen concentrators (60 W)
One phototherapy units (200 W)
One Sucker machine (approx. 20 W)
1 no. ethylene-oxide gas sterilizer (3500 W)
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE EXTENSION CORD, OR MULTIPIN SHOULD
BE USED TO GET POWER from one switch and share it.
Individual switch should be provided for each equipment.
Three-phase servo-controlled voltage stabilizers should be used,
each rated 15 kVA to 25 KVA X 3 such. Total requirement is 3.
18. Two stabilizers work at a time to provide redundancy in the system. These are
placed outside the SNCU
19. AT LEAST 30kVA DG (Diesel Generator) set is exclusively required for the
SNCU.
20. Check for any Unbalance of current in the three phases at the output of the
switchgear
21. Check for Power that is received at the feeding point
22. Check for the adequacy of the transformer for the entire hospital


SOP for checking Electrical needs of an SNCU or any ICU

Dr Rajan Dubey
Recommended ELECTRICAL SAFETY AUDITS every YEAR:-

Electrical Safety Audit for Hospitals
This is a sector where care is the most essential part of the service delivery. Care is a human attribute
which could be trained, but what about the safety that affects care? This question is the tipping point
behind choosing a hospital now days.

Recent unfortunate incidents in some of the hospitals where life has been lost due to poor maintenance
of electrical equipments, make it a necessity for hospitals to get an Enesa Electrical Audit. Electrical
Safety Audit services can help hospitals to:

Safeguard against the risk of fire due to electrical short-circuits

Prevent the loss of lives due to malfunctioning of electrical circuits, especially in the case of ICU and
for other critical care equipments

Prevent damage to expensive medical equipments and machines like scanners

Safeguard the interests and limit liabilities for senior management and directors of the hospital

Quality certified installations could help to prove that the hospital had taken preventative action
before the fire happened

Maintain reputation of the hospital and have peace in patient and employees minds