EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Equipment from other hospitals

From time to time we "acquire" equipment, either permanently or temporarily (usually with a patient) from other hospitals outside of our Trust. I'm sure this must happen at times in most hospitals so would be interested to hear other peoples views on this practice, particularly in respect of liability should the equipment cause harm.

Why not notify the "donating" Trust (as I have seen happen many times on this forum)? If it is agreed (ie, between you and them) that the transition is likely to be a permanent one, get them to forward the equipment history (and, if necessary, manuals and parts as well). Do an acceptance test on the thing, and if you don't like it - reject it! If that is not an option, get it put on the Trust Risk Register. I am not aware of any requirement (apart, of course, from the moral one) why you should be lumbered with a bit of kit that you have not had any input on, and lack resources to maintain (if indeed that is the case).

But what type of kit do you have in mind, Apollo, the odd nebulizer compressor or MS-16? Stuff like that shouldn't present too much of a problem, I wouldn't have thought.

The problem, of course, arises if you "acquire" a piece of equipment which is a different make/model to the ones that you have decided upon for your Trust. What do you do then?

In my experience, CPAPs come in with patients coming from other parts of the country - our arrangement is that the clinic notifies the other hospital and we take it on our books.

Twice I have found other hospital's equipment left in a ward cupboard with no history. One was a US oxygen concentrator with an autotransformer to allow it to run off UK mains and even the original patient's US address! The thing was over 10 years old and wasn't worth shipping back to the US so it was scrapped. The other was a BiPAP unit which was sent back to the owning NHS hospital ( thanks to this forum! )

Thanks everyone for your comments. The equipment on this occasion is a neonate BiPAP, but we have also recently received a newborn hearing screener as well as other more "minor" equipment. My concern is that, for loans at least, the same principles should apply as for manufacturer/supplier loans, but would any Trusts be prepared to sign the indemnity?

Our hospital (Edinburgh Royal Infirmary) occasionally get a few bits 'n' pieces from other establishments (Temporary Pacemakers, MR10 Respiration Monitor, Syringe & Infusion pumps, etc) that invariably accompany a patient. The nursing staff, quite rightly, deal with the patient, but after that, they don't give a monkey's about the gear, and it usually lands up with us.
As far as I'm concerned, that piece of gear does NOT belong to the hospital I work for. Therefore I am obliged to return it from whence it came. I'm sure that the Equipment Officer who keeps a record of the gear held by that hospital and carries out an inventory of his gear would be most peturbed if the gear went walkabout. In his shoes, I'd go (expletive deleted) ballistic.
We can all help here, by putting a label on ALL devices with the name of the hospital it belongs to. Whenever I find something that isn't ours and has no label of ownership, I usually ring up the MAKER (Graseby, Alaris, etc) and ask them. In fairness, they are very good about it, and I'd like to record my thanks to them. The kit that we are responsible for has a label with the hospital name and our (internal) phone number. It might be an idea if everyone else did something similar. (are you reading this at Stirling Royal???)

But what about the scenario where another Trust (in this instance a PCT) loans a piece of equipment for use on your premises, by your staff. Where does liability lie if that piece of equipment casues harm or damage? Has anyone successfully managed to get another Trust to sign an indemnity in such instances?