Today’s clinical laboratory is one of a hospital’s largest departments, producing vital information for effective healthcare delivery. A clinical lab contains several departments for a variety of lab tests and houses sophisticated specialized instrumentation. Although often viewed as an ancillary service, fast, accurate tests are relied on heavily by doctors for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. 
An important factor when considering new construction or expanding an existing laboratory is the gas requirements for the instruments being used. It is important to select a gas delivery system to ensure that the gases supplied will meet requirements for pressure, volume, and purity. Architects and designers will typically allocate space for cylinders or other gas storage options.
Safe Delivery
Safety in gas delivery systems is regulated by codes and standards. While it is beyond the scope of this article to list or interpret the various codes, the prudent system designer should be alert to their impact on the design. A few agencies with established codes are: National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) (www.nfpa.org); Compressed Gas Association (CGA) (www.cganet.com); Uniform Fire Code (UFC); and Uniform Building Code (UBC). It is important to note that local codes, which can be more stringent than any of the national or industrial standards, may also apply.
If individual gas cylinders are used to supply the gas to the instrument, the user must monitor the level of gas in the cylinder and ensure that there is sufficient gas available for the desired analyses. If a gas cylinder must be replaced during a series of analyses, the analyst must interrupt the work, restart the system, and wait for a stable baseline and perhaps recalibrate. The proper gas manifold system allows for continuous operation, and calibration of the detector simply requires the measurement of a standard at the user-specified interval to ensure that the system is operating properly.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
