EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management colour coding, electrical.

It's an old problem - and one with no easy solution. If you fit red plug tops to life support equipment, then in an ICU you would find a lot of red plug tops ! Another option is to fit red plug tops to equipment which does NOT have a battery, so unplug it and it stops. At least if you then unplug battery powered equipment it alarms to warn you it's lost it's supply.

Basically you have to make sure that there are enough sockets in critical areas - but then what is enough ?

Someone explained to me how their ITU dealt with the problem of tangled mains cables at the head of the ITU beds once - at a conference, I think. I have no reason to think he was pulling my leg ! Apparently they left all their detatchable mains leads plugged in to the walls and switched on at all times. When the nursing staff wanted to power a piece of equipment, they scrabbled around on the floor to find an unused IEC connector and plugged it in. When they had finished with a piece of equipment, they unplugged the IEC lead and dropped it back on the floor. No confusion - no problem !