Patent Application
20160121061
The invention relates to a device and a method for measuring the duration of a gas consumption period which are suited to use within a hospital building comprising a network of gas pipes comprising gas distribution wall outlets arranged on the walls of the rooms occupied by the patients, typically oxygen and medical air wall outlets.
In hospitals it is necessary to be able to monitor the duration of periods during which gas, particularly air and oxygen, is consumed by the patients, accurately and even in the rooms occupied by the patients, namely at the head of the bed where the gases are distributed via gas supply wall outlets.
This is because it is of overriding importance to be able to ensure that the patients inhale the gas prescribed for them for the prescribed duration, namely without interruption before the end of this duration but without extending beyond this duration.
At the present time, when a patient inhales respiratory gas, such as oxygen in the context of oxygen therapy, delivered by a wall outlet supplied by a gas pipe, the duration of the period for which the gas is inhaled is determined empirically by the care workers or by the patient himself, using a watch or the like.
Once the duration has elapsed, the patient removes his mask and/or the care workers stop the supply of gas to the breathing mask.
It will be readily appreciated that this approach is impractical and may lead to timing errors and therefore to inappropriate administration of the therapeutic gas and/or to losses of gas, particularly if the patient removes his mask but the supply to said mask has not been interrupted.
It is therefore necessary to be able not only to determine the duration of the period for which the patient has inhaled the gas but also to interrupt the supply of gas to the patient when this elapsed duration corresponds to the duration medically prescribed by the doctor.
From that starting point, the problem that arises is that of proposing a device that allows the consumption time to be monitored accurately and the distribution of gas to be interrupted automatically when the patient has received enough gas to fulfill his prescription, particularly when the gas administered, such as oxygen or air, is delivered by a wall outlet situated in the room occupied by said patient within a hospital building.
SUMMARY
The solution is therefore a device for determining, namely for measuring and monitoring, the duration of a period during which a gas, such as medical oxygen or medical air, is consumed by a patient, comprising:
According to circumstance, the device of the invention may comprise one or more of the following technical features:
The invention also relates to a method for measuring the duration of the period for which gas is consumed within a hospital building comprising a network of gas pipes comprising gas distribution wall outlets, in which method the duration of the period for which gas is consumed by at least one of said gas distribution wall outlets is measured using a device according to the invention.
For preference, the network of gas pipes comprises:
Advantageously, the gas distribution wall outlets are arranged in one or more rooms of the hospital building. lo Furthermore, the source of air and/or the source of oxygen are air or oxygen storage tanks respectively or a PSA or VSA unit producing air or oxygen from atmospheric air.
The present invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the attached figures among which:
This device 20 for determining the duration of the consumption period comprises a casing 11 through which there passes an internal gas passage 25 with a gas inlet orifice 21 and a gas outlet orifice 22, the gas flowing in the direction of the “Gas” arrow, namely in the direction from the gas inlet 21 toward the gas outlet 22.
At the gas inlet 21, the casing 11 comprises connecting means 8, for example a screw thread, a poke yoke system of male/female or similar type allowing the device to be fluidically connected to the gas distribution outlet 30.
Also provided are regulating means used to set a desired gas consumption period duration Tfixed, namely to indicate to the device the length of time for which it is necessary to allow gas to circulate along the internal passage 25 so as to supply the patient with respiratory gas as prescribed by the doctor or similar.
The regulating means 23 comprise one or more regulating members such as keys, buttons, numerical keypad, sliders or the like.
The desired gas consumption period duration Tfixed is preferably set by the care workers, for example a doctor or a nurse.
Display means 24, such as a screen, allow desired gas consumption period duration Tfixed or any other desired information or data to be displayed. For preference, the screen 24 is situated on the front face 11a of the casing 11, namely the face 11a situated on the side of the outlet orifice 22.
Moreover, the casing 11 also comprises gas consumption period duration determining means 1 designed to measure the total duration Tconsum of the period for which gas is consumed, namely the total time for which gas circulates along the gas passage from the gas inlet 21 toward the gas outlet 22, before being sent via a flexible hose or the like to the interface 40 connected to the patient. One embodiment of gas consumption period duration determining means 1 is detailed hereinafter and illustrated in
Also provided within the casing 1 are data processing means able and designed to compare the total gas consumption period duration (Tconsum) determined by the gas consumption period duration determining means 1 with the desired gas consumption period duration Tfixed. The data processing means are for example an electronic board organized around a programmable microcontroller, or an EE remote transmission of the WiFi/Zigbee type of the consumption to a central console.
Finally, the device 20 of the invention also comprises flow interrupting means, such as a solenoid-operated valve, which are designed to interrupt any circulation of gas along the internal gas passage 25 when the data processing means determine that the total gas consumption period duration (Tconsum) is greater than or equal to the desired gas consumption period duration (Tfixed).
Said gas consumption period duration determining means comprise a compartment or chamber 1 with one or more gas inlets 2 and a gas outlet 3, and in which compartment or chamber 1 is arranged a rotary member 5, such as an impeller, as explained hereinafter.
Here, the compartment 1 comprises two gas inlets 2a, 2b each supplied by a single supply pipe 7. This single supply pipe 7 branches into two sub-branches 7a, 7b each of which supplies one of said inlets 2a, 2b of the compartment 1. The benefit of having several inlets 2a, 2b is that the impeller 5 can be set in motion even when the gas flow rates are low, namely typically upwards of around 0.5 l/min, because the gas flow is split over several blades of the impeller 5.
The gas passes through the compartment or chamber 1 containing the impeller 5 and then re-emerges therefrom via an outlet pipe 17 bearing the gas outlet 3. The single supply pipe 7 and the outlet pipe 17 are each connected to and/or form a portion of the internal gas passage 25 passing through the casing 11 of the device 20 of the invention.
Typically, the means for measuring the speed of the gas flow comprise a rotary member 5, such as an impeller or rotor, able and designed to be set in rotation by the gas flow when the latter passes through the compartment 1 in the direction (see arrow in
The rotary member 5 collaborates with a Hall-effect sensor 6 so as to determine the duration and/or the speed of rotation of the rotary member 5 by counting the number of revolutions effected by the rotary member 5 over a given length of time, namely over the measurement time.
The duration of the period of rotation of the rotary member 5 in fact corresponds to the duration of the period for which the gas passes through the device 20 and therefore the duration of the period for which the therapeutic gas is administered to the patient, namely the total gas consumption period duration Tconsum.
The measurements taken by the rotary member 5 are then transmitted, via electrical connections 4, to data processing means 9 such as an electronic controller contained in the casing 11 of the device 20 of the invention so as to determine the total gas consumption period duration Tconsum from measurements of the rotational speed (i.e. number of revolutions over a given time) of the rotary member 5, and compare this total gas consumption period duration Tconsum with the desired gas consumption period duration Tfixed so as to interrupt any circulation of gas along the internal gas passage 25 when Tconsum≧Tfixed.
Interruption of any circulation of gas along the internal gas passage 25 is achieved by operation of the solenoid-operated valve arranged on the internal passage 25, said solenoid-operated valve being controlled by the data processing means, notably the electronic controller 9.
The electronic controller 9, the display 24 and the solenoid-operated valve arranged on the internal gas passage 25 are powered with electrical current by a battery, a cell or the mains.
Data may then be transmitted by the electronic controller 9 or some other means of transmission, over wires or wirelessly, for example a Wifi, Zigbee, Bluetooth or some other form of transmission to an information system that stores and/or processes the received data, for example a computer, a server or the like.
Alternatively, recording means, for example a memory card, allow the measured data or data calculated from the measurements to be stored.
The device of the invention is particularly well suited to monitoring the gas consumption of the wall outlets arranged in the rooms of a hospital or the like, particularly the consumption of medical air or medical oxygen, within a hospital building, typically at the head of the bed.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1354628 | May 2013 | FR | national |
This application is a 371 of International PCT Application PCT/FR2014/051116 filed May 14, 2014 which claims priority to French Patent Application No. 1354628 filed May 23, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FR2014/051116 | 5/14/2014 | WO | 00 |
