The system uses lengths of fiber-optic cable illuminated by standard 5 mm LEDs. Only 2 LEDs are required to illuminate 15 feet of fiber and only three LEDs were used to illuminate all the fiber illustrated in the photos.
A typical hospital room, including bathroom uses a maximum of 8 such LEDs. The system operates at 5V dc and 20 mA, and clearly has very low power consumption (0.8 W for a typical room).
"Currently, we are using this product in hospital settings as a night-time lighting system for the patients and nursing staff," says Soo Kim, Marketing Director of PrimeTech, which is based in Huntington Beach, California.
"The light is bright enough for the nurses to step into the room and check on patients without turning on the bright overhead light, but does not interfere with patients when they are sleeping."
"There are many applications for our product including lighting for boats, homes and automobiles, but at this time we are focusing on the healthcare and residential market," Kim adds.
Anaheim Memorial Medical Center is the first hospital in Orange County to go live with SafeTGlow lighting, having recently installed the fiber-optic system in 60 rooms on the clinical observation unit (COU) and tower telemetry units.
Funded by an initial grant from The Anaheim Memorial Foundation, the new lighting system is designed to improve overall patient care and comfort, as well as to help meet the a goal to “reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls.”
Anaheim Memorial is partnering with PrimeTech on the beta installation - the Huntington Beach firm will then work with hospitals in Orange County and nationwide to bring the advanced lighting system to patient rooms.
