Background

Koh Phangan Hospital is a small hospital located on a distant island in Suratthani, off the east coast of Thailand. Located on a popular tourist destination that neighbors the famous Koh Samui island, the hospital provides treatment for both local and foreign patients.

Beginning in 2018, the hospital started transforming from a small and simple facility with only 30 beds, into a smart hospital with state-of-the-art equipment and advanced technology that provide better treatment and experience for their patients.

The hospital also invested millions of Thai Bahts on modern medical equipment, such as echocardiographic machines and exercise stress test treadmills. With such devices priced as high as 1 million Baht each, there is no room for unpredictable electric power incidents. Beyond damaging costly equipment, power surges also disrupt medical care and procedures, putting patient lives at risk. Proper planning of power networks and infrastructure is essential to the smooth running of the hospital.

Challenge

Given its remote location, Koh Phangan Hospital relies on the main electrical grid on the mainland of Nakorn Sri Thammarat province, through Koh Samui. The hospital had two generators connected with the local grid - the standard electrical structure of Thai healthcare facilities.

However, high quality generators alone could not help with electrical stability and continuity. Power surges occur twice every time when switching between the main electrical system and the generator, and delays are expected. These outages occur almost daily, and get worse during the monsoon season.

“During the monsoon season, thunderstorms and lightning made the power outages even worse. I believe these problems occur not only on our island, but also in other remote areas and mountainous regions across the country,” said Dr. Worawut Puttanaporkrattana, Director of Koh Phangan Hospital.

Current overload and voltage drops damage critical medical equipment, and even caused a fire in the pharmacy rooms.

Failures in the electrical system also hinders medical equipment from operating at their maximum efficiency, which is especially crucial as patients’ lives are at stake.

The frequent power disruption also affected patients’ overall experience and the hospital’s operational efficiency. In its bid to transform into a smart hospital, the institution had deployed smart self-service kiosks for patient registration and pre-health checkup. When these kiosks are down, additional manpower has to be deployed to manually register patients on paper, and assess patient information such as height, weight and blood pressure.

Constantly repairing and replacing the damaged medical equipment took a huge toll on Koh Phangan Hospital’s operational costs. The disruptions also affected staff morale and performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic deepened the urgency of fixing this problem, as the hospital was facing a significantly higher patient volume than usual. Koh Phangan Hospital desperately needed electrical stability for the continuous running of its advanced medical equipment and patient database servers.

Finding a responsive UPS solutions provider was also a challenge, given the institution’s rural location. After a few unsuccessful attempts at contacting various power management providers, Dr. Worawut submitted an online enquiry to Eaton. Within a week, Eaton’s Thailand partner, Engitech Power Protection, and its local engineering team responded and arranged a site visit to survey the situation and provide our recommendations.

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, delayed the installation process due to travel restrictions. Dr. Worawut had to issue an official letter declaring the necessity and urgency of Eaton’s visit in fighting against the pandemic, in order for the team to obtain travel approvals. Eaton was eventually granted the necessary approvals, and successfully installed the solutions on site.

Solution

In collaboration with Engitech Power Protection Co. Ltd, Eaton calculated the suitable specifications for Koh Phangan Hospital to deliver the most appropriate product that best catered to the hospital’s urgent needs.

Eaton proposed the compact, three-phase 93E UPS, which extended battery module (EBM) function matched the hospital’s requirement of 30 minutes backup at 80% load. Additionally, a network card in the 93E connects to the institution’s IP address, which will immediately activate an alarm and send an automated report in the event of a power surge or outage. This allows Koh Phangan Hospital to monitor, manage and remotely shut down UPSs across its network.

“Eaton’s patented Powerware HotSync technology makes it possible to parallel up to four UPSs to increase availability or add capacity. The technology enables load sharing without any communication line, thus eliminating a single point of failure,” explained Mr. Annop Atthaniti, Managing Director of Engitech Power Protection Co.,Ltd.

After the commissioning service, Koh Phangan Hospital signed a 3-year preventive maintenance agreement with Eaton’s service team. With plans in place to order more modern medical equipment as part of the hospital’s ongoing digitalization efforts, Dr. Worawut intends to deploy more 93E UPS systems to use in parallel with the existing devices when the load is nearly full.

Results

Following the deployment of Eaton’s 93E UPS, the hospital stopped facing power disruption problems like it used to. In fact, every equipment connected to this UPS system continues performing well. Now that the electrical system is stable, the medical staff and administrative support teams are able to focus on delivering quality healthcare to their patients without worrying about imminent outages. This was especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the hospital were under a lot of pressure to optimize their resources for large volumes of patients.

The smart self-service kiosks now function optimally, enabling nurses and healthcare assistants to focus their attention on patient care. The overall improvement in Koh Phangan Hospital’s electrical system has significantly raised their operational efficiency on all fronts.

With Eaton’s and Engitech Power Protection’s help, Koh Phangan Hospital has solidified its reputation as a model smart hospital for the region. Today, the hospital is often visited and referred to by other remote health institutions in Thailand as a best-in-class example of digital transformation.

“Two neighboring hospitals that visited Koh Phangan Hospital contacted us to help them address similar power management challenges. Being in the rural area, they realized the importance of electrical stability that Eaton’s UPS can provide,” said Mr. Annop.

“Every hospital should invest in their hospital infrastructure - power stability is the bedrock of fully functional medical equipment that is critical for quality and timely patient care,” Dr. Worawut added.

“With Engitech Power Protection and Eaton’s help, we were able to save significant time, manpower and financial resources previously spent on managing frequent power disruptions; and ultimately focus on helping our patients get better.”