Kauvery Hospital Chennai declares complete self-reliance for all oxygen requirements

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis is far-reaching and is an important eye-opener for healthcare providers to understand the surging need for resilient infrastructure, especially for oxygen supply.

Kauvery Hospital, one of the top multi-speciality hospitals in Tamil Nadu, has taken a proactive step to ensure no shortfall in providing seamless care for patients.

Becomes first multi-speciality private healthcare establishment in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to become fully self-reliant on in-house oxygen supply.

The units produce more than 700 Litre Per Minute (LPM) of Medical Grade Oxygen used by all critical departments with a surplus for emergency, day-care patients & In-patients.

Addressing the need of the hour, Kauvery Hospital has installed two large Oxygen generation (PSA) units within the premises, as of April 2021. During peak times, the units together (each unit or both) supplied Oxygen for more than 250 COVID patients, fulfilling 60% of the total Oxygen requirements, in a short span of just two months since the installation of the new technology.

As a leading healthcare chain, the installation of Oxygen generation units is a leap towards building a resilient healthcare system with efficient management and round-the-clock availability of critical resources to those who require it.

Sharing his thoughts, Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj, Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, "The foundation for a self-sufficient healthcare system is to have patient-centric norms as a focus, uninterrupted availability of essential healthcare resources and investment in robust infrastructure. Against the background of the COVID crises, it quickly became an important goal of our organisation to streamline operational processes, build preparedness for such adverse circumstances and develop a self-reliant practice to ensure undisturbed Oxygen supply. Since April 2021, we have set up two Oxygen manufacturing plants within our premises that produce up to 96% Medical Grade Oxygen. The supply from these units is more than sufficient for our critical patients and is amply available for other cases, as well. At Kauvery Hospital, we see this effort as a powerful determinant that not only creates complete in-house self-reliance but also provides seamless medical support for every patient in need. We are happy to be the first multi-speciality healthcare institution to have taken this step in the right direction as we continue to cater to the needs of our patients."

Speaking on the new initiative, Dr. Iyappan Ponnuswamy, Medical Director , Kauvery Hospital Chennai says "The Pandemic has shown us that Oxygen has increasingly become a precious commodity. As an initiative of the Critical Care & Pulmonology Department at Kauvery Hospital, we felt the urgency to have an in-house solution to address the oxygen scarcity. After setting up the Oxygen generation plants, our dependence on external support systems and oxygen suppliers has drastically dropped, thereby allowing us to provide unlimited Oxygen for all patients. We are additionally prepared with an emergency backup of more than 200 Oxygen cylinders as well as liquid Oxygen Cryo tanks, should the need arise in the future."

The abundant and seamless availability of Medical Grade Oxygen also supports more than five ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) Units and CentriMag devices. This heavy-duty medical equipment is required by patients dependent on heart-lung machines and by-pass machines for open-heart surgery. It pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest and thereby aids recuperation.

Speaking on the occasion, Ma Subramanian, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Tamil Nadu said, "We have been giving a tough fight to the COVID-19 over the last few months. The number of cases are gradually declining, however all the necessary infrastructure is still in place to ensure timely testing and effective treatments. We faced oxygen shortage in the state few months ago, but fortunately we were able to overcome the crisis with more oxygen supply from other states and countries. This move by Kauvery Hospital, making them self-reliant on in-house oxygen generation, is commendable as it is the need of the hour considering the possibility of a third wave. The public have trust on the healthcare system and it is our duty to serve them with utmost care. Having said that, this move by a multi-speciality hospital will definitely help in effective treatment and management of COVID-19 patients."

PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) technology of Oxygen production uses Zeolites Molecular Sieves to separate Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc. from ambient air, leaving Compressed Oxygen in gaseous form as the end product.

The purity of Oxygen is around 93% (+-3) A standard sized PSA plant can produce 360 litres of oxygen per minute, supplying 60-70 oxygen beds. One patient generally requires 5 litres of Oxygen per minute, which goes up to 60 litres per minute for critically ill patients.

Having our in-house oxygen generation allows us to provide tailor-made solutions depending on client needs. Additionally, the plants are maintained and supervised by trained professionals, making them safe and easy to operate.

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( With inputs from ANI )