CGA Publishes M-28, Guideline for Assessment of Health Care Facility Medical Oxygen Systems
May 17, 2022
At the beginning of the pandemic, CGA published Safety Alerts and other guidance that health care facility personnel could use to temporarily increase the capacity of their medical gas supply systems to meet increased demand.
Two key learnings by CGA and our members during the COVID19 pandemic were:
- high flow medical oxygen is one of the most effective treatment regimens used in health care facilities and elsewhere to treat the disease, and
- health care facility medical gas supply system infrastructures were often strained to provide medical oxygen at the pressure and flow rates needed to support an expanded COVID 19 patient population.
As the pandemic wanes, it is time to take these lessons learned and evaluate whether health care facility medical gas supply system infrastructure is adequate to meet present and future needs. This evaluation must start with an assessment of anticipated medical oxygen need. It must also include on-pad equipment, such as storage tanks, vaporizers and reserve system as well as size and layout of the health care facility’s internal piping system.
To facilitate this evaluation, CGA has published CGA M-28, Guideline for Assessment of Health Care Facility Medical Oxygen Systems, 1st ed. CGA M-28 provides an outline for conducting an evaluation of a health care facility’s medical gas supply system and is intended to be used jointly by health care facility personnel and the medical gas supplier to identify medical gas system changes necessary to ensure medical oxygen, at the required flow and pressure, is available where and when needed. The document is available to the public at no charge.
