No one could have predicted the pressures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Essential workers, especially medical professionals, are under more stress than ever. With the workload maintaining its high volume, there is all the more reason to find hacks.
What if there was a way to reach every hospital wing, floor, station, nurse site, and operating room? Fortunately, such an invention exists. Pneumatic tube systems were invented in the late nineteenth century. Since their creation, they have evolved to perform at an even higher level. These tube systems can be compared to a subway. Carriers move materials wherever needed throughout the facility; sensors ensure each porter reaches its appropriate destination, and Transfer Units deal with line changes.
Stanford Medicine is a prime example of a medical facility's productivity benefiting from the use of pneumatic tube systems. In 2010, Stanford Hospital relayed seven thousand runners a day in their children's hospital alone. They achieve this with pneumatic technology using one hundred twenty-four stations, one hundred forty-one transfer units, ninety-nine inter-zone connectors, twenty-nine blowers, and over thirty-six different alert chimes.
Another example of pneumatic tube systems leading to higher coherence is the University of Iowa. The Master Transfer Unit at the University of Iowa contains eight miles of steel pipe, one hundred sixty-seven stations on its main campus, and thirteen additional stations offsite. Additionally, their facility handles six thousand carriers a day.
Pneumatic tube systems significantly lower the error margins, not merely increasing the passage of medicines and organic materials. Over four weeks, one hospital cited experiencing sixteen errors on the floor without a tube system. The floor with a tube system encountered zero medication errors over the month. This operational technology eliminates human error by taking human carriers out of the equation.
With the advancements listed above, recent pneumatic tube systems would be a great addition to a hospital. Pneumatic Tube Systems are custom-designed to handle over ten thousand transactions efficiently each day. Human carriers and outdated pneumatic systems are obsolete compared to this technology. This arrangement is optimal for facility management, hospital planning, inpatient pharmacy, laboratory, or nursing wards.