The Faculty Hospital Olomouc is building a pneumatic mail system for 85 million

Olomouc - A significant acceleration in the transportation of biological materials and medicines is to be provided by an extensive pneumatic postal system that the Faculty Hospital in Olomouc (FNOL) has begun to build on its premises. The construction of the pipeline, with a total length of 13 kilometers, will cost 85 million crowns, which the hospital will pay from its financial resources. The pneumatic postal system, which will connect most of FNOL's buildings, is expected to be operational at the turn of 2016 and 2017.
    The deputy director of FNOL, Martin Šamaj, told ČTK today that several thousand samples of biological material are transported daily from clinics to laboratories, which is currently very organizationally demanding. Employees walk several dozen kilometers daily throughout the FNOL premises. "We have established a continuous patrol service, so our staff carries samples for laboratory processing on foot. Our goal is to focus the staff's attention as much as possible on patient care and to limit tasks that we can automate," Šamaj explained the investment in the pneumatic postal system.
    The pneumatic postal system will have a diameter of 16 centimeters, allowing it to be used for the transport of other shipments as well. "We are also considering its use for the transport of medications, documents, and small medical supplies. Everything will be transported in special shipping cases, which have an internal length of up to forty centimeters and are equipped with memory chips so that we can monitor individual shipments. This will also increase safety and eliminate human error," Šamaj noted.
    Workers will place the pipes underground and in the ceiling voids of the buildings. Shipments will be powered by compressed air. The control center for the pneumatic postal system will be located on a grassy area between the III. Internal Clinic and the clinics of oncology and pulmonary diseases. "Unfortunately, it will be necessary to fell several mature trees in this area; we have, of course, ensured replacement tree planting in the immediate vicinity. We will partially utilize the existing network conduits for underground installation; in some areas, we will have to carry out excavation work," Šamaj added.
    Many Czech hospitals use pneumatic postal systems. Last year, the Plzeň Faculty Hospital built a new pneumatic postal system on its Lochotín campus. Using the pipeline connecting all the facilities, healthcare workers send blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid samples, and other biological materials to the hospital laboratories. The pneumatic postal system can shorten the delivery time of samples from the more distant parts of the hospital from half an hour to just a few minutes.