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The COVID-19 crisis hit the world health sector – Italian Aosta Valley Regional Hospital searched for the most effective solution

 

  • During the Covid-19 emergency, from March to April 2020, up to 9 departments dedicated to the care of patients affected by corona were set up in the Aosta Valley regional hospital and the resuscitation places were tripled
  • The staff of the Aosta Valley Hospital consists of more than 2,100 employees with 310 doctors and 700 nurses
  • 127 beds and 28 resuscitation places dedicated to Covid-19 cases
      

The Challenge

 

Of the 125,666 residents in the Valle d'Aosta Region, the officials reported a total of 1,175 people infected by Covid-19 with 144 deaths (18/05/2020).

 

The Technical Office was asked to research the best technologies to improve the air quality inside the regional hospital (with over 450 beds) and thus minimize the Covid-19 infections among healthcare workers and patients.

 

Among the objectives was to improve the quality of indoor air by preventing the virus from spreading through the movement of the air and to protect the hospital departments from Covid-19 as much as possible. Air purification devices were chosen as one of the methods for purifying the air. It is necessary to protect the patients but also healthcare personnel who are usually more vulnerable as they operate in infectious wards.

 

The Genano proposal 

Eng. Marco Alinovi, coordinator of Operation and Maintenance in charge of the air conditioning systems of the hospitals of Aosta Valley, did some research and comparisons, and decided to deepen his knowledge of Genano Technology directly with the Manager in Italy, Corrado Cerutti.

 

Genano Technology decontaminates the whole indoor air, eliminating viruses, germs, bacteria but above all the airborne nano-particles up to 0.003 μm that can harm the health of patients, healthcare workers and visitors by entering directly into the bloodstream.

 

Genano offered the hospital its newest model, G350, which is a plug & play unit with an air treatment capacity of 300 m3/h, which can be used to complement the existing air conditioning system. The units have no filters to dispose of, which means there isn't a substrate for bacterial growth. In addition, the units are equipped with wheels and can be transported where they are most urgently needed.

 

At the beginning of April, the Technical Department ordered 4 Genano G350 units after evaluating the effectiveness of air decontamination combined with the very low operating and maintenance costs. In May, two more G350 units were ordered.

 

The Technical Department has requested to install kits on the units to obtain negative pressure inside isolation rooms and thus protect the health of the healthcare workers who access them. Technical tests are carried out to evaluate the possibility of using G350 units to create negative pressure rooms, using the special kit provided.

Result: Positive feedback from frontline healthcare workers

The Genano G350 units, designed to kill microbes through strong corona discharges inside the collection tube, do not release any by-products and they remove gases and odors through an activated carbon collector.

 

Health professionals who came into contact with Genano units, had positive feedback: they noticed the improvement in air quality already after the first hours of use.

 

Monitoring how the particle matter levels have dropped has been made easy with Airwits sensors supplied to the department.

 

In the press release of the Regional Council 22/04/2020, the health coordinator Luca Montagnani highlights:

 

“…I want to highlight that we have the highest number of healed and discharged patients in relation to positive cases, with a percentage of 40.2%. We are followed by the Province of Trento which has 32%, and after that come all the other regional health entities."