It is quite unusual for an entire hospital to be built on a greenfield site in Germany. In most cases, only individual clinics or parts of buildings are modernised. In Oldenburg, a completely new wing was added to the Pius Hospital – with a ward, an intensive care unit and a central operating theatre with four operating rooms. The people of Oldenburg call it a milestone. After all, the medical and technical systems are now state of the art and meet the highest standards. This also applies to electrical safety, which is where Bender's intelligent technology came into play.
The Pius Hospital Oldenburg is located in the centre of the city. Everything is densely built up and it was not possible to extend the hospital. In order to construct the new part of the building (F wing), a former nurses' residence had to be torn down. It took around seven years from the planning application to completion. But now everyone is glad that it is done. The new F wing offers the most modern medical facilities currently available, from diagnosis to treatment. Excellent planning on the part of the construction experts and technicians made this possible. The medical staff were also involved in the project planning at an early stage.
"Such an ambitious construction project calls for the expertise of many different parties. In addition to the core team of planners and architects, the employees from the relevant specialist departments also had a major say and contributed their expertise to the planning."
The Pius Hospital in Oldenburg is the largest Catholic hospital in north-west Germany. Every year, more than 60,000 inpatients and outpatients are treated in the 400-bed hospital using the latest medical and nursing knowledge. State-of-the-art medical technology is available for diagnostics and therapy. As part of the Medical Campus of the University of Oldenburg, Pius Hospital is also involved in research and teaching.
The effort required to construct this new part of the building, including the ultra-modern central operating theatre, was, however, considerable: The project involved laying 40,000 metres of power cable, 30,000 metres of data cable, 1,200 metres of fibre optic cable and 2,500 data sockets. After all, the F wing was intended to be an investment in the future. And the effort was worth it. The new part of the building houses the central operating theatre, an ophthalmic operating room, the intensive care unit, a ward and a separate technical area for the ventilation and cooling control centre as well as service and office space.
The central operating theatre is the new flagship of the Pius Hospital. It consists of four operating rooms, one of which is a hybrid operating room with a floor area of 65 square metres. Almost any kind of operation can be performed here, from abdominal surgery to vascular surgery. It is equipped with the latest technology and opens up a whole new world of possibilities for medical and technical staff. Surgical teams can now communicate easily with the outside world during surgery and live images can be transmitted from the operating theatre so that students or experts, for example, can follow an operation.
New standards have also been set in terms of electrical safety. The latest technology from Bender is used to monitor the unearthed system in operating theatres (IT system) required by the standard. For Kay-Ole Lüken, site manager and electrical engineer at Pius Hospital, there was no alternative. "We are a Bender building," he states clearly. "Bender devices are installed everywhere and we're doing well with them."
The latest generation of Bender alarm indicator and operator panels was installed in the central operating theatre and the intensive care unit. The CP9xx was not yet available at the time of planning in 2015. But after Lüken saw the device at the "Light & Building" trade fair, it was clear to him: "We want this device, because everything in the new F wing should be state-of-the-art!" He particularly liked the fact that the user interfaces on the CP9xx touchscreen can be customised and that the medical gases can be monitored, or the operating theatre lighting controlled via the numerous interfaces. He was also impressed by the user-friendliness of these modern alarm indicator and operator panels. So, there was a change of plans, and the new devices were to be used instead of the TM800 panel with front foil. According to site manager Lüken, Bender's support during the planning and construction phase was exemplary.
The small 7" CP907 devices are now installed in the intensive care unit and the 15.6" CP915 in the ophthalmic operating room. The largest version of the alarm indicator and operator panel, the CP921, is used in the central operating theatre. Its 21" monitor provides an ideal overview.
Of course, medical and technical staff first had to be trained to operate the new equipment properly, but that was no problem. Everyone was very pleased right from the start. "The clear display on the touchscreen leaves nothing to be desired," says Lüken. "The operators see at a glance: everything is green, which means everything is fine." The feedback from the medical team has been consistently positive so far. There has not been a single fault or failure since the new central operating theatre was commissioned. Even the subsequent programming of additional control commands worked perfectly via remote access. "We are very satisfied and haven't regretted a minute of it," says Lüken. "That's exactly what we want."
"We are very satisfied and haven't regretted a minute of it."
Photos © Daniel Clören, Lukas Lehmann and Pius Hospital
