If you have ever been driving by your hospital loading dock area and noticed a giant 30 ft tall tic-tac, you should tell someone. That is not normal. But before you report it, make sure it is not just your bulk oxygen system.
What is a Bulk Oxygen System?
Your primary liquid tank is nearly always going to be a large double-walled, stainless steel, vacuum-insulated vessel. Because this is a medical gas system, full redundancy is required, so you will have a backup or reserve system in the same area.
The reserve vessel may look like a smaller version of the primary tank, a stainless steel microbulk vessel, or a group of high pressure cylinders tied into a header.
Primary vs. Reserve Supply
With other gas manifolds, you have at least a primary and secondary supply and the manifold switches back and forth as part of normal operation. Your bulk oxygen, however, does not have a secondary supply—it has a reserve supply.
Under normal conditions you use what is in the primary vessel. As soon as the primary hits the point where the telemetry unit notifies the provider, they connect the truck and refill. That is normal operation.
Key Components
- Vaporizer — warms liquid oxygen to gas form using ambient air
- Delivery manifold — sets delivery pressure for the hospital; includes source valve and auxiliary valve
- Telemetry unit — sends tank levels to your bulk oxygen provider
- Local alarm panel — indicates system status and reserve use
Humans really like oxygen, especially the alive ones, so this is a pretty important piece of your system. In our next video, we cover safety practices to keep this system running smoothly.