EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management ICU VENT SUPPORT.

Does your department carry out support to ventilators on ICU/ITU.

Do ebme staff change vent breathing circuits at bedside/on patient? single choice
	YES
	NO
Votes accepted starting: 01/01/70 1:00 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

Do ebme staff carry out preuse tests after each patient? single choice
	YES
	NO
Votes accepted starting: 01/01/70 1:00 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

Dear KM,
It is the job of a nurse or ICU tech.If biomed start doing it you are under utilising your manpower.You may do it if your nurses or icu techs are brainless or "too smart".
Like to hear the comments from this group on this issue ( may be other medical equipments too) rather than a poll result.
Regards
Sajeev

Sajeev,
Surely the role of an ICU Nurse is to errr Nurse and that should keep them busy enough. If the ICU does not have a tech and there is a fault with a vent then surely that is an EBME issue. IN terms of changing vent circuits and the like then most ICU nurses I have worked with would not dream of asking anyone else to set them up. As an ex-ICu nurse myself, I made it my business to understand how the kit worked so I could perform simple trouble shooting, but if the kit needed a cover removing or part replacing then off to those who are paid for taking covers off.

We seem to be developing a "hands-off" maintenance policy for almost everything that connects to a patient. Manufacturers and operators seem to be taking up the slack - at a cost obviously but we are awash with funds to resource this, rather than develop the service we provide, it seems.

Mmm,........ service developments?

Are there many departments out there doing ALL of the maintenance support to ITU ventilators i wonder (i.e. NO support contract from manufacturer)

I doubt it but when your EBME department positively encourages operators, i.e. anaesthetists and nurses in theatre, to go on 1st-line technical courses for anaesthetic machines/ventilators then it makes you wonder what the future is for the medical engineers working there.

In my opinion medical people (nursing staff etc) are there for treating the patients and USING the equipment. EBME guys are there for the technical problems encountered (in some cases resolving user errors) by the medical staff and any support we can give is offered.
I wouldnt expect my milkman to post my letters as well, thats the postmans job!

I agree - as an engineer it's very frustratiing when the carpet's being pulled from from under you.

We cover all maintenance / troubleshooting on all our equipment especially Ventilators and personally i can't believe any department would entrust this to a nurse! No matter how experienced they were.

So do many of you have contracts in place in this equipment area (manufacturers or 3rd party)
?