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Hospital and health care warm water systems

Testing for Legionella in health care settings

Legionella is a commonly occurring bacteria found in both natural and artificial water systems. In Legionnaires’ disease, a serious and potentially fatal form of pneumonia, the infection is caused by inhaling contaminated water droplets containing Legionella bacteria.

There are a number of elements which could be the catalyst for Legionella proliferation in a water distribution system, including; incoming water quality, plumbing systems, heated water systems, equipment and installations. Facility managers and care staff at hospitals, aged care facilities and health service centres need sufficient information in order to protect patients and residents of their buildings.

Innovative Testing.
Quality Results.

Analysis of water in the facility’s water distribution system is vital to ensure quality.

Water quality can be controlled via:

  1. Operational monitoring – determines if the implemented risk controls are effective. Temperature, pH, turbidity and disinfectant residual are commonly used to confirm effective controls.
  2. Verification monitoring – determines the presence and concentration of any microbial contamination (including Legionella).

Monitoring provides the ability to assess the effectiveness of maintenance and controls and to detect the presence of Legionella before cases of Legionnaire’s disease develop.  At ALS, our dedicated Microbiology laboratories and expert staff can provide a Legionella testing service to support your water system maintenance program.

These include:

  • Field sampling services (where available)
  • Sampling kits
  • Traditional culture methods based on ISO 11731: 1998
  • PCR analysis based on ISO 12869:P2012
  • Rapid confirmation using MALDI-TOF

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