EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Recording of PPM results

To what degree do you record results when doing a PPM?

I am from a calibration background, so feel uneasy just recording that an item has been PPM'd and not recording any test results.

For infusion pumps we record occlusion level & rate etc. For Patient monitors would it be acceptable to test to the manufacturers recommendations and then just record that it has been tested/re-calibrated , but not record any test results?

I'm interested in getting peoples opinions. I'm of the view that all test results should be recorded in case of any future problems / incidents.

If you test to a given spec, manufacturers or your own, then a record of pass, failed and work done is all that's required - as well as using an element of common sense as well.

Cheers
Mark

I try to avoid recording values when servicing infusion devices, especially when you consider the %error given for a set/syringe. As Mark has stated, if its within specification - pass. If not fail.

I do consider recording some equipment results, diathermy output, phototherapy output etc.

The only results I record and keep are the electrical safety test (not corelated by equip't though) and defibrillator test results. Otherwise I only record that a PM/Cal'n check was done. Either equipment passes or I correct it.

My department philosophy has always been to record the detail which includes specific values, outputs etc. for a lot of certainly higher risk devices.
Infusion/Anaesthetics/Ventilators/Defibs would be a good example, for instance.

However lately we have had to try to 'tailor' our PPM regime (probably like mainy others have had to) slightly and refine what we do record in the interests of time saving/efficiency (call it what you will).
Overall i feel we still capture the relevant results and values and this has been commented on positively, in 'legal' cases that have occured in the past.

We used to record PPM and electrical safety test results on the database ( a DOS based one ) when we were able to electronically upload the results from flash cards and straight from the safety tester. But when we went to using the Optim database, it was impossible to do so as Optim insists on PDF files so we only record results on acceptance of new equipment or after repair ( printing and scanning PPM results and safety test results! )

Jonathan

I thought that Optim took results down from Metron testers and incorporated them into its dataset for the relevant device.

Brian

The best practice is to record all data for the tests performed, but dept have moved away due to time and other factors.
Pass or fail may be ok, but not for depts who like to progress further by collating years of history and then saying well the rate test on the 3100 for the last 6 years have all been within tolerance so we wont do them, this is an EXAMPLE. Apparently because of history data you have proven reason to tailor your test protocols.
what does everyone else think!

We tend to record our test results as figures etc within a service check that allocated to a model and hence all devices within that model.
the Service is flagged to arrise at set intervals and can be manually allocated by the engineer at the time of the job.
We may log all the results such as in a service like an electrical safety test. Or have a service called xTC where if the engineer says they has done it "yes" the service relates to the manufacturers upto date full test card having been carried out successfully.
We also log all test devices used, parts used and any 3rd party activity.
All test results can then be extracted from the database for any reason if required.

Apparently not, we would have to network the Metron in order to do that. Do you use Optim Brian?