Hospitals consume more water than other organisations since, in addition to human consumption, healthcare environments require a high level of hygiene and cleanliness. In some cases, moreover, the water must be pure, or have special characteristics, in order for healthcare services such as haemodialysis and therapeutic pools, and processes such as clinical analysis laboratories, laundry, food processes, steam boilers, autoclaves or cooling towers, to work correctly. In addition, high water consumption implies significant energy consumption and a significant amount of hazardous waste produced by or with the intervention of complex and expensive water purification. Healthcare centres must reduce water consumption, as required by Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda. One of the aspects that can contribute is to provide optimal maintenance of the facilities. However, there is a significant lack of objective mathematical models allowing the selection of the most appropriate maintenance policies to be applied in systems involved in the softening and production of domestic water. Therefore, this contribution sets out a model agreed upon by a number of hospital service managers, developed using the Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH), to select the optimal combination of maintenance policies to be applied in a public university hospital. The results of the model have allowed us to objectively determine the validity or need for updating of the maintenance policies applied, analysing the effects that the proposed changes would have on the quality of care.

Authors:
María Carmen Carnero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

About the Presenter(s)
María Carmen Carnero is full professor in the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering in the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

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