EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Configuration at Acceptance Stage

Since it's definitely a clinical decision (except perhaps when deciding on communication settings, password protection etc) it has to be signed off by a senior clinician. If the equipment could end up anywhere in the hospital (Equipment Library stuff) then the decision lies at the very top of the clinical tree rather than with the head of a specific department.

The settings on the P6000 can be changed by the user, but at least the machine logs the changes so it's obvious who changed them ! It's very rare that configurable settings should be left 100% at factory defaults. These are usually set to allow maximum flexibility in use rather than maximum safety in critical situations. Plus there are silly things like mains filter frequency being set to 60Hz - so EBME have to go into the default settings during acceptance. It's part of the "ensuring the equipment is fit for use" requirement, surely.

The technical aspects are not the problem Roy, (Louis has never seen the line frequency mentioned on the practitioners script :p ) this is most certainly biomed work, we have that in writing. It IS the clinical decision I am trying to secure. Paul I totaly agree with you, thanks again for your ostentatious offerings

LIII (Red tape hurdler)

May i just add that when this item was posted, my main concern was the standard Acceptance Procedure as downloadable from this site was lacking in someways and not that our EBME dept were being neglectful.

As for your infusion devices Louis III, you could possibly try configuring 'personalities' on the devices then include the use of these in your standard training package.

David, the problem we are having is every user department wants a different personality (preferably a new CE ) Oncology, Neo, Paed, ICU/CCU etc. This is an ideal situation if we could super glue the blighters to the beds . I have refused to let our department get involved until a senior clinical decision has been made. In Roy's words.
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Dave H, I do not believe we are missing the point at all, we are merely trying to obtain advice in order to tidy up an existing situation that I know exists in other establishments.

L3

L3

I said am I missing the point, not your good self.

With 500 Colleagues and several "personalities" available I would have thought you would have enough scope to cover most options.

The choice has to be made between generic scenarios ITU, CCU, Neonate, Oncology etc and having pumps individually configured to one person's whim ( "I want the alarm tone to play Marching through Georgia and the pump to vibrate and levitate 6 ins off the ground") or be practical.

What did we ever do before the advent of technology. I remember when a phone just rang and had a big round dial. Still does the same job today tho' as the polyophonic,web enabled, web cam, 84g, colour display variants.

I would suggest a quota of all "normal" personalities with a batch available to be cloned if stocks of a certain type are depleted.

Yes Louis an EBME input, but where practically possible.
Configuring 500 individually then I think not an EBME issue. Let the individual user sort that out with the supplier.

Dear All

Here common items are configured as part of Acceptance (provided the user can decide on one). The configuration is decided by the senior nursing staff of the area that the unit is to be supplied to.
The senior nurse keeps a copy and we keep a copy at the front of the service manual. If an item comes back de-configured, we note the fact on the service report and restore it.

People may define configuration poorly and find the operation too restricted. They then re-define it, we re-list it and change them. However it is the clinicians job to get the units back for re-configuration. Otherwise they won't be done until next service interval.

Given that we have a job getting staff to talk and agree configuration, I think the prospects of outsiders like Reps managing this is very remote.

As far as specialist dedicated pumps etc. These are not pooled items and so would get specialist configuration. Since we are just a pair of district generals we don't have much specialised stuff. Teaching hospitals have my sympathy.

The problem of transfering a device with an inappropriate configuration is a prescribing problem not an engineering one.
So far it hasn't been a problem but following reading your postings here, I can see it may well become one. Clearer labeling is probably going to be necessary. Yet more labelling!

By the way. Keeping the equipment codes secret is absolutely essential. We have had problems I won't discuss regarding chaotic re-configuration and even deleted patient history. I never found who gave the staff the codes but it has caused some problems.

Ostentatious input Dave H, Your so right, guess Louis has been banging his head on a camels butt for too long, still at least they havnt asked "do they come in any other colours ?" not yet anyway

L3

L3

Here we have some departments that are not part of the Equipment Library ex. SCBU. These guys have set a working number of devices which have been donated by the Equipment Library and retained by them.

These are configured purely for SCBU and will not leave the dept, however if they require additional items they are free to loan from the library and select the SCBU personality.