Hospitals and care

• Clients or patients in a hospital, healthcare or elderly care institution are more susceptible to infection, and therefore Legionella;
• Personnel is also vulnerable;
• These kind of buildings frequently have high water temperatures and complex plumbing systems in which biofilm and Legionella bacteria can develop;
• In water above 65˚C (usually at the boiler) Legionella is killed, but a danger of scalding exists. To prevent this, thermostat valves are used, which are hard to keep Legionella free as mixing cold and hot water can activate the Legionella bacteria;
• Varying utilisations of rooms and departments can lead to stagnant water in parts of the plumbing system, which in turn leads to increased Legionella risk;
• Frequently add-on buildings or temporary buildings are used, where plumbing runs under the ceiling and the cold water can reach temperatures over 20˚C, which leads to a higher risk of Legionella;
• A Legionella contamination in a hospital or careinstitute has severe consequences:
  • Clients and patients must be housed elsewhere or should be moved to another department;
  • This requires lots from sparse personnel and is time consuming and costly;
  • It leads to negatieve publicity;
  • Worried patients and families;
  • Management and the board are liable when a patient actually contracts the disease;
• Modifying the building and the water system is impossible or impractical and very disruptive of operations;
• Chemiscal flushing is costly and also very disruptive;
• Prevention is the best cure;