PROJECT PROFILE: Single-Source Capabilities Solve Operating Room Needs for Leavenworth VA
First Medical Gas Trailer Built by P1
Just because we haven’t done it before doesn’t mean we can’t. When the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center in Leavenworth, KS needed a medical gas trailer to equip their mobile operating room (OR), P1 stepped up to the challenge.
The VA Medical Center is preparing to renovate the operating rooms and, due to the nature of the renovations, they are not able to move surgeries to another location in the building. In order to continue providing surgical procedures, they brought in a mobile OR trailer to use during the remodel. However, this trailer did not come equipped with its own medical gas supplies.
The contractor in charge of the renovation contacted P1 and asked if we could provide a medical gas trailer and of course we said, “Yes!”
“We could not find a manufacturer that provided medical gas trailers,” Plumbing Service Manager Dave Rollo said. “We have not made one of these before, but because we have a history with medical gas and operating rooms in buildings, we knew what the requirements were for a bottle room and we applied those requirements to the trailer. It’s all standard work, we are just did it in a non-standard application.”
The requirement was a 24-foot enclosed trailer to sit next to the operating room trailer and house the oxygen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, and medical air. It also contains all the electronics for the sensors, manifolds and electricity for lighting, heat, and exhaust.
The trailer purchased by P1 was a bare shell with plywood on the floor and walls. The floor was later covered with aluminum diamond plate and the walls with 16-gauge aluminum to create the one-hour fire rating required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
The gasses are heavier than air, so they are located near the floor. The exhaust system pulls the air in from the bottom and out through the top. Some of the gasses are temperature sensitive which required the trailer to be heated.
The trailer was custom built inside the Lawrence Fab Shop. The Sheet metal shop took care of the floor and wall panels and the exhaust system. The electrical crew installed all the lighting and outlets, and the plumbing fab shop set the medical gas piping and the manifolds. The entire process took approximately three weeks.
Upon completion, the trailer was moved onsite and the service plumbers came in to get it operational. The gasses were piped from the medical gas trailer to the OR trailer, and a cold water supply from the building to the operating trailer was installed. The trailer also required waste piping from the bathrooms in the OR trailer to a nearby manhole. The waste piping was heat traced, insulated, anchored to the parking lot and covered for protection. The sheet metal shop created a manhole cover that would accommodate the temporary waste pipe.
Even though we had never done it before, a plan for construction was put together and the teams performed their parts like clockwork: Another example of how P1 expertise provides top notch service to customers.
PROJECT TEAM
