WISAG constructs cleanrooms for Klinikum Saarbrücken

Mid-2021, the Saarbrücken Municipal Hospital celebrated the grand opening of the new pharmacy extension in the presence of Saarbrücken's Mayor Uwe Conradt and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Tobias Raab. (Source: Saarbrücken Hospital)

Mid-2021, the municipal Saarbrücken Hospital celebrated the grand opening of the new pharmacy extension in the presence of Saarbrücken's Mayor Uwe Conradt and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Tobias Raab. (Source: Saarbrücken Hospital)

By mid-2021, the Saarbrücken Municipal Hospital at Winterberg celebrated the grand opening of its new pharmacy extension. The WISAG Industrial Service Group, one of Germany's leading industrial service providers, was involved in constructing approximately 120 square meters of new cleanrooms of GMP cleanroom classes A-D for the hospital. Over 1.8 million euros have been invested in the structural expansion on Winterberg.

The pharmacy was designed and implemented according to the latest standards in cleanroom and medical technology, with WISAG responsible for the complete execution of the new building, including planning. "We were tasked with establishing two different manufacturing areas of cleanroom class B for the production of cytostatics and sterilized products. To ensure the safe production of all medications, the approximately 15 and 25 square meter B-rooms include an additional roughly 30 square meter preparation room, as well as several staff and material airlocks," explains Axel Tesch, Sales Engineer at WISAG Building and Industrial Services in Dresden. The industrial service provider deployed up to eight technicians, two commissioning engineers, a project manager, a designer, and a GMP consulting engineer on site.

"As the general contractor for the cleanroom, we were responsible for the turnkey construction of the cleanroom area. Since all rooms and airlocks used must meet the requirements of the Arzneimittelgesetz (AMG) – aligned with EU-GMP regulations to ensure product quality – it was essential to ensure that user requirements and the demands of all relevant laws, regulations, and guidelines were properly considered and implemented. In this context, metal ceilings and walls, a plastic floor, a new ventilation and control system, airlock furniture, pharmacy equipment such as safety cabinets and refrigerators, as well as a new monitoring system were installed and qualified accordingly," Tesch states. This monitoring system supervises the room pressures in the manufacturing and preparation rooms, as well as the airlocks. Additionally, all room temperatures, refrigerator, and freezer temperatures are recorded. To ensure the safe production of products, a particle control system is connected to all safety cabinets (GMP class A), which monitors and securely records data on two mirrored hard drives.

"The limited space conditions within the hospital posed the greatest challenge for us in this project," describes the sales engineer. "The existing pharmacy did not allow for renovation while operational, so an initial concept involving a new container-based building was considered. However, this was discarded due to fire safety regulations. Since medication production must occur near the main building, the extension was planned on the existing technical and media supply building of the hospital."

The hospital's pharmacy currently supplies over 2,200 hospital beds with medications. Not only do the hospital's patients benefit, but also three acute care hospitals and three rehabilitation clinics in the region are supplied with over 1,900 continuously stocked preparations. Additionally, medicines are delivered to the ADAC rescue helicopter, the Saarbrücken rescue association, and the Malteser Relief Service. The forward-looking expansion of the pharmacy with new sterilization facilities has now been successfully completed. "We invest in the best possible patient safety by ensuring the highest level of purity,"

states Dr. Christian Braun, Managing Director and Medical Director at Saarbrücken Hospital. "Under sterile conditions, our pharmacy team produces patient-specific medications, which benefit not only our own patients but also our partner clinics."