COVID-19 crisis: SPIE supports Saarbrücken Clinic in setting up a Corona Ventilation Centre

Saarbrücken, 14 May 2020 – SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, supported Saarbrücken Clinic Winterberg during the setting up of the second Corona Ventilation Centre (COBAZ 2). The aim is to increase the number of adult intensive ventilation beds there from 41 to 74. SPIE Buchmann, a company of SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa, was awarded the contract to help realise network technology for some of the beds. The work began for the multi-technical service provider without project definition phase and was completed within a few weeks.

Technical installations provided under time pressure 

The services which SPIE carried out for the new Corona Ventilation Centre include changes to technical installations and the provisional building of wall-mounted supply units for different utilities at the bedplaces as well as the related network connections. “Time was critical here, and we had to improvise to ensure that  the new vital facility would be up and running quickly”, says Heiko Dörr, Project Manager at SPIE. “We have done our utmost to procure special material (for instance, IT network switchboards or monitoring panels) within eight days; here the delivery time is usually eight weeks”, adds Heiko Dörr. The new Ventilation Centre was built within about four weeks during ongoing operations. “Cleanliness and hygiene played an immensely important role in addition to the time factor. Disturbances to medical processes also had to be avoided”, explains the Project Manager, in reference to the additional challenges.

Cooperation for a vital goal

The clinic of Saarland’s capital, which is defined as Level 1 Centre for the treatment of critically ill Covid-19 patients, and which was named as one of three Corona specialist centres for Saarland, currently secures the interregional health care service. COBAZ 2 is to be activated if the capacities of the already existing COBAZ 1 and the Centre for Intensive and Emergency Medicine are exhausted.  

SPIE did its utmost to support the clinic in completing this important medical facility as soon as possible. In this context, Mr Dörr praised the trusting cooperation with the client. “The cooperation between the electrical department of the clinic and our team was very good. This enabled the necessary material to be quickly procured, procedures to be perfectly coordinated and technical details to be clarified in advance”, said SPIE’s Project Manager. “We are proud to have supported such an important project with our more than 45 years of experience in hospital”, commented Heiko Dörr finally. 

And this is not the first contract for Saarbrücken Winterberg hospital. Parallel to the work at COBAZ 2, the multi-technical service provider built various electrical installations, including lighting and network distribution in the clinic’s school for specialist health professions and in the surgical area of the urology department. Three years ago SPIE already carried out the replacement of the existing low voltage main distribution board at the hospital.