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John Hansson Marketing & Business Development Director of Getinge with Gabriela Eriksen and the Poke Yoka
Automatically easier infection control from Getinge
The world leaders in infection control speak to European Hospital at Medica.
EH: What is your theme for this year’s Medica?
JH: Our theme is “automatically easier” because that is our target in infection control, to make our customers’ wash and sterilisation procedures as easy and efficient as possible.
EH: So how are you approaching this aim?
JH: We don’t look at the competition; we look at how things are changing in hospitals, the shape of the future. In Europe we have hospitals closing and regrouping, we have a population that is ageing. We can treat more diseases so people live longer so as patient numbers are increasing at the same time healthcare budgets are getting smaller. This is our challenge; how to help our customers treat more people more efficiently and cost-effectively.
EH: In terms of machines what does this mean?
JH: Last year at Medica we introduced our new Turbo washer-disinfector. This year we have introduced new features to improve its performance. This machine is the world leader in efficiency. It is revolutionary in cutting processing time in half.
One improvement is with our automatic loading system. Instead of people having to wait by machine to load when ready you can feed the dirty instruments in one side, they are loaded automatically when the load is full and the clean ones come out the other. This saves time, money on personnel and also reduces re-washing from loading errors because the machine gets it right. Everything is connected to our T-DOC software system so that the customer can prioritise and track their production and ultimately save money. Also we have a new feature in the dryer sensor, instead of drying for a fixed time, the inbuilt humidity sensor can tell when the load is dry; this saves time and energy. Reducing energy use is a major consideration for our customers today.
We have also reduced the processing time on our automated endoscope reprocessor the Poka Yoke, which means its complete cycle only takes 22 minutes.
EH: Who are the decision makers in the hospital?
This will depend on where, every country is slightly different. Nowadays in Europe it tends to be the hospital management, it is a big decision. Our customers purchase this type of machine about once every 15 years, it is very important for us that our customers make the right decision for their future use. We provide as part of our offer “architectural support,” a service whereby we ask the customer to forecast what is likely to be changing for their hospital over the next 5-10 years in terms of space and capacity and of course cost reduction. This is why we are world leaders in infection control we provide not only the best machines for any size working practice but also planning and total peace of mind.
This article was published on 11/16/2007