Interesting what you say about battery changes per equipment life. So you reckon three, then? Over a ten-year life span, I presume.
Depends on the number of charge/discharge cycles and the projected lifespan of the medical device I suppose Geoff. For Defibrillators that are kept on charge on crash trolleys then I'd expect it depends more on their age rather than the number of cycles. Unless the crash trolley is located in a geriatric ward, A&E or CCU that is.....
For monitoring used on inter-hospital or intra-hospital transfers then I suppose it comes down to the number of discharge/charge cycles and whether battery reconditioning is used (hence the importance of smart battery compatibility with charger/conditioner). Most importantly whether the packs are abused or not.
And yes, "forward thinking" indeed. Get the batteries written into the initial purchase order (ie, at today's prices), and just call them off as you need them. Yes, that sounds like the way to go!
Something like this was arranged for our new defibrillators that use Li-Ion smart battery packs and we received about £3500 of spare MnO2 packs (non-rechargeable 5 year shelf-life I think), FOC, for our AED "first-responder" defibrillators, recently, on our site alone.
Of course we have arranged that operators get discount on battery reconditioning units and tried to make certain that our crtical care areas have acccess to them for the smart transfer-monitor batteries.
It's my personal belief that if batteries are operator accessible then they should take responsibility for managing and replacing battery packs that they use/abuse. Operators instructions include battery management guidance.
