Water is the foundation of life making it a perfect breeding ground for infection, microbial growth and antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Water, also being the foundation for dialysis, plays the most important role in successful patient care.
During an average week of dialysis, a patient can indirectly be exposed to 300–600 litres of water, providing multiple opportunities for potential patient exposure to waterborne pathogens. Renal healthcare facilities generally have large complex water systems that when poorly maintained, can introduce an additional risk of infusing these waterborne pathogens.
Adverse patient outcomes, including outbreaks associated with water exposure in dialysis settings, have resulted from patient exposure to water via a variety of pathways, including improper formulation of dialysate with water containing high levels of chemical or biological contaminants and reprocessing of dialyzers with contaminated water. For the health and safety of patients, it is vital to ensure the water used to perform dialysis is safe and clean.
The avoidance of complications arising from water contaminants, be it chemical or microbiologic, requires constant and vigorous attention to water quality to ensure compliance. When the processes to provide sufficient product water of appropriate quality for the facility are adequately stabilised, the facility will need to continually look at ways to improve the level of wasted water often experienced through RO treatment.
Enaqua was asked to comment on the importance of good quality RO plants and the fundamentals behind their design, read the attached article for more interesting information
Follow this link to read the article at Medpharm.co.za
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