One machine – for two people

The health system is currently busy searching for solutions to the rising number of patients on ventilators due to coronavirus. At the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, where staff are constantly busy preparing and increasing readiness regarding everything to do with coronavirus, good news on the issue have arrived from an almost unexpected source – the staff of the Medical Engineering Department. The department usually works to deal with all the hospital’s technology and medical equipment – incorporation, fixing, and installation.

The issue of the number of ventilators against the rise in the number of patients who would need artificial respiration due to coronavirus was not missed by the department staff, who found a simple yet creative solution – using one ventilator so that it could simultaneously serve two patients. The means – forming two separate multi sockets for providing artificial respiration on one machine. The ventilator will provide respiration for the rate of breathing, oxygen levels, and tidal volume to be determined by the doctor. This will be suitable for patients who cannot breathe alone, meaning, they are fully dependent on a ventilator.

“It’s true that it doesn’t sound too sophisticated,” explains Asi Haliba, Director of the Artificial Respiration and Anesthesia Unit in the Medical Engineering Department of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, “and this is certainly not a situation we want, because the ideal is one machine per person, but this is a practical, logical solution for the patient or staff, if there is a situation in which there is a shortage of ventilators and a rise in the rate of patients requiring artificial respiration.”

The first “tool experiment” was already successfully, of course, carried out by Medical Engineering Department technicians, Asi Haliba and Yigal Weiner last Thursday. At the beginning of the week, the idea was also raised as an option in USA hospitals, where there is a serious shortage of ventilators.

Asi Haliba (left) and Yigal Weiner, alongside the split ventilator

How does it work?

“We created two multi sockets for the device’s only socket, and essentially thus doubled the entries and exits for providing gas with the machine. The ventilator itself is set to a double artificial respiration volume, and, in addition, the rate of breathing, oxygen concentration, and other settings, can be selected. The system creates total separation between the two patients, which also means infections are not transferred,” Haliba summarizes the action that was performed and the idea behind it.

“The creative and simple solution spread like wildfire between the medical engineering departments in the various hospitals, which were immediately excited by the idea,” notes Bezalel Meirnetz, Director of the Medical Engineering Department at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, “we all hope that this creative solution will not be needed, but it is preferable to be prepared and find alternative solutions, in any event. I am proud of my staff and their innovative vision.”