The purpose of the reverse osmosis, or RO, system, is to provide safe, clean water for patients within the hemodialysis center.
Department of Public Health Deputy Secretary of Hospital Administration Esther Muna said the system costs $141,413.
It functions as a water treatment separation process that uses a pump to drive water at high pressure against a semi-permeable membrane.
The membrane removes 96 to 99 percent of incoming solutes including dissolved inorganic material, large organisms, endotoxins, viruses, and bacteria.
“The process first starts by pre-filtering and pre-treating [CNMI] water to remove as much chemicals in the water,” field engineer Christopher Missinne of Mar Cor Purification told Variety on Wednesday.
“The water is then fed to the reverse osmosis system, which then purifies the water. The purified water goes into a storage tank, where it is then transferred through sterilized equipment to make sure bacteria won’t affect the water. The purified water is then sent to the patients. Used water goes back into the storage tank, where it repeats the whole process again, continuously 24/7,” he added.
Mar Cor Purification, which specializes in filtration, water, and disinfection technologies, was assigned to install the state-of-the-art system, which included the installation of distribution loops to 27 hemodialysis stations in the hospital facility.
According to the hemodialysis center’s acting biomedical services supervisor Tony Mafnas, the new RO system will be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
“By September, this system will be passed, and we will hopefully start to see patients in the hemodialysis center,” he said.
Curtis Short, another field engineer who helped install the system, said the system will “last 30 to 40 years.”
“Maintenance is important,” he added.
