Hospitals have a priority to keep their patients safe and healthy. Many precautions and strategies are put in place to ensure this, including the implementation of water management plans. But there’s one aspect of water management that could easily get overlooked — ice machine filters.
Ice Machine Filters Are Important to Hospital Safety
They may not seem like an obvious source of dangerous bacteria, but hospital ice makers can become contaminated with legionella, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and other waterborne pathogens. This can become problematic and lead to avoidable hospital-acquired infections.
There have been cases where ice machines were colonized by Legionella pneumophila as a result of being connected to the hospital’s contaminated water system. In addition, numerous outbreaks of NTM have occurred in hospitals as a direct result of contaminated hospital ice makers. To defend against these threats, hospitals need to be proactive.
You could be proactive by implementing a policy of routinely culturing the drinking water supply or performing complete ice maker decontamination, but this can be challenging to accomplish consistently. Installing an inline bacteria filter on your hospital ice maker is a simple and effective solution.
Benefits of Using Inline Bacteria Filters in Your Hospital Ice Machines
Inline bacteria filters should be used in addition to other proactive measures like disinfection and cleaning of the hospital ice maker. By installing inline filters (such as a Baclyser IL3, IL5, or IL10) in your hospital ice makers, you can prevent the spread of bacterial infections.
There are obvious costs to taking these preventative measures, but the price is marginal when compared to taking reactive measures like dealing with patient infections, hiring consulting services, and taking excessive disinfection procedures.
Aquamedix Can Help You Provide Safer Water
Municipal water may contain waterborne pathogens, which can cause diseases that may lead to severe illness or death. Having fresh water is critical, especially for people with compromised immune systems.
At AquaMedix, we design, manufacture, and distribute water filtration systems for the control of waterborne pathogens found in potable water. Our products include shower filtration systems, inline water filters, and faucet water filter systems.
Contact Us Today About Our POU Water Filters & Bacteria Control Water Filters
