Oxygen System Planning Tool
Demand estimation and recommendations to plan oxygen delivery from source to patient.
The Oxygen System Planning Tool (OSPT) is an excel-based, customizable tool that can be used to plan oxygen delivery systems from source to patient. This tool can be used to support high-level healthcare budgeting and planning needs related to oxygen, including health and procurement specialists and oxygen technology stakeholders.
The tool uses health facility-level input data and customizable country input parameters to calculate oxygen needs. With the relevant data from users, the Oxygen System Planning Tool recommends an oxygen source to meet those needs (i.e. a new local oxygen plant, liquid oxygen, concentrators, cylinders from a distant plant, or a mix). The excel-based tool can help users develop multiple scenarios of oxygen infrastructure to compare CAPEX/OPEX cost, demand, resource re-allocation, and other key outcomes noted below.
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UNICEF regularly updates and improves the Oxygen System Planning Tool and also provides technical assistance and training resources.
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We may also contact you to further understand your experiences using the tool.
Key outcomes
Estimate oxygen demand at health facilities
The OSPT estimates oxygen demand at individual health facilities using data on facility type, number of patients and disease prevalence. The tool can then create health facility archetypes to aggregate oxygen demand for a full geographical area or at various levels of the health system.
Generate health facility-level recommendations for appropriate oxygen source options
Based on oxygen demand, the tool will then calculate and recommend the most appropriate, efficient and cost-effective oxygen source solutions for different health facilities. This often involves a combination of cylinders refilled from centralized plants, on-site PSA plants or oxygen concentrators.
Automate the calculation of distances between health facilities and oxygen plants
The tool also automatically calculates the distance between known oxygen plants and health facilities to inform when cylinder refilling from a centralized PSA or liquid plant may be the best oxygen source solution.
Generate equipment lists
The OSPT provides procurement lists for each health facility, covering oxygen source equipment, consumables, and diagnostic devices. It can also quantify which consumables and equipment will need to be replaced across a specified timeframe, when reordering is needed and the ongoing budget required.
Estimate the capital and operating costs
The tool estimates capital and operating costs (e.g. electricity) broken down into categories for each health facility. It can then aggregate costs for different administrative levels or nationally for a given time period. This can help governments, donors or oxygen suppliers understand the full and long-term costs of establishing and operating an oxygen system, enabling accurate budget planning and ensuring appropriate funding is secured.
Aid in planning placement of new PSA oxygen plants
The tool can also support users to plan the optimum placement of new PSA plants, based on oxygen needs and distance to other health facilities that could benefit from cylinder refilling.
Testimonials
“We didn’t have the basic devices. When we even diagnosed a person, we couldn’t actually treat the person. We were referring most of our cases. We were supplied with devices like the pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators. It makes diagnosis and treatment quite easy. [Now] we are confident that we can actually treat them here. We can reduce under-fives mortality.”
Resources and training guides
