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

Some time ago I asked for advice on the supply of coloured mains plugs. I have know been asked for information on the following from our critical incident forum. This is in response to an in house request that all life support ventilators may need to be fitted with a plug that identifies their connection from amongst a bank of maybe 12 plugs that are all connected closely together.
1. If colour coding is to be done, will there be a need for training to all users?
2. Will information charts be posted identifying what colour does what?
3. How will we ensure that when a plug top is changed the right colour is fixed to the correct piece of equipment?
4. Will a permit be required to ensure human error is minimised?
5. Is this practise carried out anywhere else?

Any constructive comments would be gratefully received. Especially if anyone has actually gone through this type of exercise and would be willing to share their findings / actions taken.
Bear in mind the plugs on medical devices are checked / fitted by ebme, but not the plugs on tv, video, fans etc.

Here at Sandwell we fit all "Life support" with Red MK Plugtops
Marked up Hospital Equipment with a do not switch off sticker

(we normally fit white MK plugtops so the change to RED is quick and easy , only the top is red)

These are quite visible in a strip of white plugtops

All IT equipment is fitted with a special plugtop with a T shaped earth pin which cannot be plugged into the wall sockets.
These measures seem to work quite well

KM,
In my last job I was asked to fit coloured plugs to all essential equipment on an intensive care where there had been an incident. A nurse tried plugging in a syringe pump by unplugging the ventilator. At least we had got the "keep it on charge" message home.
I asked the sister for a list of "essential" equipment. It ended up as effectively all medical equipment which rather defeated the object of the exercise as that was virtually all the plugs at the bed head. So I suggested different coloured plugs for types of equipment and a priority list. The nurse said that her staff would not remember the colour code so they would end up not touching any coloured plug, i.e. all plugs at the bed head - back to square one.
The colour coding education would also have to be given to contract cleaners etc. - not easy as they are outside hospital controls and procedures.
Dedicated medical sockets were suggested but rejected on cost grounds. Extra outlets were also out as that meant shutting areas down to wire them in. How many do you need by an ITU bed? I have counted 17 pumps, let alone monitors etc on one occasion.
This was never satisfactorily sorted out. It was just left as "something" should be done but we could not sort out what.
Tracing a cable back before unplugging and more importantly not having a bird's nest of wires behind the bed are the simplest solutions. But their implementation......
Not a lot of help to you but it is not an easy problem to solve. Good luck.
Robert

Well, its a bit fiddly but this is what I do...
Any cable permanently attached to equipment gets its own label on the plug-top eg VENT 1 or HUMID 5. Cables that get swapped about get a two letter code taped to the plug and again near the equipment end; so you check behind your pump and find it's cable EN, you look for EN on the plug top. 'P-touch' tape covered with sellotape seems to resist cleaning long-term.

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 !

We use red plug tops on ventilators only. IV systems have their own battery so it's less of a problem.

As for IEC connectors lying around on the floor plugged into the wall sockets it's positively dangerous and an accident waiting to happen ie electrocution. A burst saline bag liberally douses everything including the 'live' IEC connector lying on the floor and you have fried staff and possibly patient.

This is a practice that needs to be actively and if necessary forcibly discouraged.

Dear All

The colour coding of plugs is historical and was divised by Estates to denote which sockets were on Essential supply (i.e. those which are connected to the generator in the event of power failure)

i.e. Red sockets or red inserts were for essential medical equipment i.e. connected to the back up generator

Black sockets or black inserts were for all other essential equipment i.e. connected to the back up generatoe

And white sockets or white inserts were for domestic or non essential equipment, i.e. socket not connected to the back up generator

This was done to ensure that the load to the generator is kept as low as possible.

RS supply plugs marked for Hospital Use in three colours, Red, Black and White for this reason. Speak to your Estates of even NHS Estates before adopting any other colour code as you could going against the NHS agreed policy.

I recall MDA had a notice many years ago reinforcing this colour coding for essential mains outlets.

Does anyone have any idea where the above mentioned docs can ve found, easily.

Surely there's not much point in colour coding the plugs, since in my hospital IEC leads get swapped all the time, despite our best efforts to keep them with the equipment, so coloured tops wouldn't have any use.

Any particular colour for mains extension-blocks with ventilator, humidifier, monitoring and other stuff plugged in, on the floor, swilling around with mop-water and sitting under a catheter-bag?