Hospital Pneumatic Tubing Systems

Published: August 9, 2016
by Jean Jones
Screenshot of a news article. An image shows two hospital doctors holding a phone and a pneumatic carrier. Text says, "There are thousands of apps for today's smart phones - apps that make life easier or more entertaining. Now, from the University of Virginia, comes news of how iPhones helped solve a medical mystery that may be vexing doctors around the world. Sandy Hausman has that story. Like many other hospitals, UVA's medical center uses a network of pneumatic tubes to deliver blood samples to its central laboratory for testing. Garrett Mullins, a clinical chemistry fellow, says it's like what he saw as a kid at the bank's drive through."
Screenshot of a news article title called, "Changes in blood gas samples produced by a pneumatic tube system."

Recently I heard of this “Medical Mystery” on an NPR “Morning Edition” broadcast. My ears perked up when I heard the words “hospital pneumatic systems.” Apparently hospital pneumatic systems have a problem to solve; until we learn to beam up blood samples from one end of the hospital to the other, we need to reduce damage to the blood sample.

Fortunately for us, this is not our problem. We do not design systems, just the tubing. Busada tubing is used for not only hospital systems, but banking pneumatic transfer systems. You can follow this story on an excellent blog.

So, iPhones took a ride in a pneumatic system. Did you know that the Delta Rhythm Boys sang about iPhones in 1949? That is true prophesy.

And to the right, our tubing has made it into Martha Jefferson Hospital in the rehab floor in orthopedics.

Tubing in a display with bronze hands and a clock in the Martha Jefferson Hospital.

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