Can a hospital's medical IT (IPS) panels be included in an electrical thermography survey?

Yes. Medical IT or isolated power supply (IPS) panels serving theatres, critical care and other group 2 areas can be imaged live, once the hospital’s authorised person opens them under its own permit system and the clinical team has agreed the timing. The survey looks at the incoming supply, transformer terminations and outgoing circuit connections. It does not replace the panel’s insulation monitoring or the hospital’s electrical testing.

Why IPS panels get left out

IPS panels sit close to the most sensitive rooms in the hospital, so they are often treated as untouchable and dropped from the scope. They are also among the panels the estate most needs to stay healthy: they feed the equipment in theatres and intensive care. A live survey adds them without switching anything off, as long as access is planned with estates and the clinical lead (see surveying a hospital without disrupting clinical areas).

What is imaged

The incoming supply to the IPS panel, including the changeover where two supplies are fitted.
Isolating transformer terminations, primary and secondary.
Outgoing circuit breakers and their connections to theatre and bed-head outlets.
The upstream board that feeds the panel, often in a plant room or riser.

The isolating transformer body runs warm in normal service. The report compares like with like, phase against phase and terminal against terminal, and does not treat normal transformer heat as a finding. A thermal image shows heat, not its cause, so the report states what was measured and where it was taken.

When to survey

IPS circuits only carry meaningful load when the area is in use, so a theatre panel imaged at the end of a quiet day may show very little. Where the panel sits in a corridor or plant space outside the clinical room, survey during a normal operating list. Where it sits inside the room, agree a window with estates and the theatre or unit manager, and the report records the load at the time so the next survey can be compared (see what load a survey needs).

Access, permits and infection control

Only the hospital’s authorised person opens the panel. The thermographer follows the area’s infection control rules for clothing and equipment, and works around the clinical team, not the other way round. If a panel can’t be opened on the day, the report lists it as not imaged so the gap is visible.

What the report gives you

A same-day report from Ti Thermal Imaging that locates each finding by panel, circuit and phase, with the measured temperature, where it was taken, the difference in °C from a matching reference and the load at the time. Ti inspects and reports; the hospital’s electrical team or contractor investigates with the circuit isolated and carries out any work.

A finding from the busbar stage

Findings turn up where nobody planned to look. On a London data centre build, commissioning thermography by our team found 16 busbar sections reading above 80 °C under test load, the highest 103.5 °C at a tap-off unit. A scope that leaves out the panels nearest the patient leaves the same kind of gap.

Frequently asked questions

Does imaging an IPS panel affect the insulation monitor?

No. The camera makes no contact with the panel. The insulation monitor carries on working as normal.

Does thermography replace the hospital’s IPS testing?

No. It sits alongside it. Thermography shows heat at connections under load; insulation monitoring and electrical testing check other things.

Can theatres stay in use during the survey?

Usually, where the panel is outside the room. Inside the room, the timing is agreed with the clinical team first.

Can a hospital’s medical IT (IPS) panels be included in an electrical thermography survey?