From plasma proteins to platelet functions and coagulation to infectious disease, clinical laboratory Instruments generate the essential biomedical intelligence for patient evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plans. Cancer, diabetes, drug abuse, fertility, heart disease, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, thyroid dysfunctions,and more are revealed and clarified through test processes performed by sophisticated, automated, clinical laboratory instruments.

These instruments—such as automated immunoassay analyzers, haematology analyzers, and molecular diagnostic equipment—enable laboratory personnel to generate hundreds of results per hour—many times over the rate of older generation equipment. The advancements in speed and capability that once were heralded as efficient, labour-saving advantages quickly raised the bar, instead of easing the workload. Today’s levels of laboratory workflow depend on these instruments being constantly available, even 24x7 in some facilities. Financial pressures have forced clinical labs to seek quicker turnaround of test results and greater productivity per hour, per day.

As powerful and promising as these technologies are, they are expensive and involve highly sensitive equipment. Protecting these growing capital investments is a pressing concern for hospital management and healthcare practitioners alike. When clinical lab instruments malfunction, productivity losses mount and the quality of patient care is affected. Not all technology problems can be foreseen or prevented, but in one area at least power quality taking control is easier than you might think.

As mentioned by a major player in their medical systems study of equipment sites with high labour and materials costs, in 81 per cent of the cases the problems stemmed are not from the equipment but from power problems. Backup generators and surge suppressors comprising the typical power protection strategy at many medical facilities have proven to be insufficient for the demands of clinical lab instruments. Only Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPSs) are designed to protect equipment from the full range of power anomalies that are silent killers for sensitive electronics.

Proactive planning can prevent the potentially devastating consequences of power disturbances, while improving patient relations, diagnostic quality, equipment health, productivity and revenue.

Read on to find out why generators and surge suppressors are falling short, what types of UPSs are available, what UPS technologies are appropriate for your clinical laboratory equipment and how you can determine the right configuration for your needs.

Clearly, uninterrupted power is critical for clinical laboratory instruments. If power fluctuates for just a few seconds, lab results and data can become corrupted or lost. Internal system communications can lock up and require a reboot. Even a brief power disturbance can trigger events that result in hours of downtime before the equipment can be restarted. Invisible power anomalies can be silent killers—the electronic equivalent of high blood pressure—causing damage to sensitive components and malfunctions in crucial lab procedures.

The problems and risks are intensifying under the force of three key trends: firstly being that the Clinical lab technologies are becoming ever more sophisticated. They have evolved from simple, low-speed, single-purpose devices to complex, high-speed, integrated devices that support multiple types of analysis. These high-end instruments use components so miniaturized that they falter and fail under power conditions that earlier-generation equipment could have easily withstood.

Secondly, under constant pressure to deliver faster results, slash costs, and increase labour efficiency, manufacturers of lab analyzers have developed instruments that double, triple, or quadruple the number of results delivered per hour. That means an hour of downtime carries a greater penalty than ever before.

Thirdly, a system might well be handling a full range of chemistry tests plus haematology analysis to diagnose and monitor everything from diabetes to cancer to HIV/AIDS. New lab systems are available that link centrifugation, pre-analytical and post-analytical systems to automate testing and speed the results of tests to physicians.

Presently, most major medical facilities have backup generators that provide emergency power within 10 seconds and Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors (TVSS) that absorb potentially harmful surges, such as from electrical storms. These are merely band-aid measures for systemic problems. But these backup generators and surge suppressors are not enough to recover power within 10 seconds, when that interval is enough to lock up a diagnostic test procedure in progress—or if the manufacturer of your instruments strictly advises against generator power. They are not enough to shield systems from power surges, when equipment is just as easily damaged by power sags, brownouts, line noise, frequency variation, switching transients and harmonic distortion. Users may only notice power disturbances when the lights flicker or go out, but clinical lab equipment is aware of—and damaged by—many other hidden anomalies, even some which are caused by the equipment itself.

UPSs on the other end can protect clinical lab equipment from the full range of potential power anomalies—not just outages, surges and spikes. Eaton Corporation is a leading global provider of comprehensive power quality and backup power management solutions, consistently delivering the high 9s of availability demanded by today's digital economy under the Powerware brand. Powerware solutions include the broadest range of power quality products and services available today. There are three key types of UPSs are in use today: standby, line-interactive, and on-line.

Standby UPS—the economical solution for non-critical applications
With a standby UPS, the protected equipment runs off of normal utility power until the UPS detects a problem. At that point, the UPS quickly activates an inverter that converts DC battery power into the AC power needed by the equipment, and runs the equipment from its own battery. The battery provides enough time (5-15 minutes is typical) to complete a process and shut down the system in an orderly way. Standby UPSs are a low-price solution for non-critical applications that only need minimal power protection. Because raw utility power is being used during normal operation, a standby UPS doesn’t regulate voltage and frequency variations until they become severe enough to trigger the switch-over to battery power. Therefore, standby UPSs is more appropriate for small-office and home environments, rather than where protection is needed for important, high-dollar systems.

Line-interactive UPS—the mid-priced choice for voltage regulation
Line-interactive UPSs regulate voltage by boosting input utility voltage up or moderating it down as necessary before allowing it to pass to the protected equipment. Line-interactive UPSs offer more protection than standby UPSs. They are generally used with network devices such as hubs and routers, small communications systems, servers, and small workstation environments.

However, clinical laboratory systems need power with a clean sine wave, and line-interactive UPSs are not designed to condition power that way. They simply keep power within an acceptable voltage range. Furthermore, with line-interactive UPSs, the input voltage could drop 10-volts or more before being kicked back up to specification. Boosting power in this way can send a disruptive voltage spike to the protected equipment. With some line-interactive UPSs, the UPS battery is required for voltage regulation, which diminishes battery capacity and adds maintenance issues.

Online UPS—the only real choice for clinical lab systems
Online UPSs continuously use an inverter to protect against all types of power contamination and create clean, perfect sine-wave power for downstream systems. Clinical lab equipment is completely isolated from raw utility power and all its irregularities, using a double-conversion process. With double-conversion online technology, incoming utility AC power is conditioned and converted to DC power, a small portion of which is used to charge the UPS battery. The remaining DC power travels to the inverter, which produces new, perfect 120-volt sine wave AC power to deliver to the instruments. Only this type of perfect 120-volt sine wave power enables sensitive equipment to
perform to manufacturer specifications.