EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Ventilator testing

We're looking into the prospect of looking after our ventilators in house! aaagh! Anyone out there give me feedback on pro's & con's of - training required, test equipment needed, cost involved, worth taking on OR not? Should we leave them on contract?

What type/ model vents are they?

yes what make, model how many,
does anyone have vent knowledge

Same question as everyone else, what makes and models to you have there to maintain ??

In the long run providing the support in house is more cost effective.

You will need to be trained by any respective manufacurers, typically you'll be looking in the region of 1000GBP per engineer for vent training.

Test equipment, you'll need a pneumatic analyser (PTS2000, QA-VTM, PF300, Respical) typically in the ball park of 5000-6000 GBP. Only cost then on top will be spares and PM parts.

Ventilator is a pretty specialised field and the learning curve can be very steep, so you ideally want someone with a background in ventilation.

Ventilator is a critical care, Life saving equipment.
A no of institutes giving basic training also for this type of equipments.
If you have same brand ventilators , we can reduce cost in inventry also(in stocking spares)
Once you became well versed in operation and maintenance, you can reduce no of breakdowns because of maloperations
yourself can train the hospital staff in operations.
But 1) You must have thorough knowledge and good confidence in working in ventilators
2)Hospital should have same brand/model of ventilator in cosiderably large qty
3)Whether the supplier is ready to supply necessary spares in time/ in advance

If you have positive reply to all the above questions , then you can go head in this .

Brad,
Ive worked on ventilators for 17years. At this trust we carry out all service/maintenance/repair/evaluation etc to all our ventilators and anaesthetic machines etc.
The training you need to do is very specific and I would suggest you start with a basic short course on basic prinsiples then advance to the manufactures courses.
The costs of having vents on contract can be 10k each so there will need to be a case put together which points out the benefits of having in house experts who will give unbiased advice of problems etc.
Test equipment, we have 3 vent testers ranging from 1k to 6k in price depending on how deep you want to get.
Spares etc can be expensive if your used to only buying parts for pumps etc. Some routine service kits alone can cost 4 - 5 hundred pounds.
If your thinking of buying any vents in the not to distant future id advise getting the training costs rolled into the purchase agreement also you may want to take out an EBME / Supplier shared contract to start with this lets you get your toes wet without getting into a drowning situation to quickly.

Brad,

I'd agree with all the above comments. We do our own servicing and repair on both ventilators and anaesthetic machines, but we have a specialist technician who came from an pneumatic / electronic background and had already received training on a number of machines. It's a difficult (and expensive) area to get into.

A shared contract is a good way to start. Only drop off the manufacturers support when your completely happy. Obviously they are still there at the end of the phone, and as you need to call them in less and less, you can revert to a "pay as you need them" aproach.

Good luck - it is worth doing and can save a fortune in the medium term. Also the users are happy because they get a faster response.

Brad,
we here have done our own work on these devices since about 1987.
It has proved very fruitful over the years and helped us gain a depth of knowledge/skills across the staff base here.It can also help raise a departments profile in a Trust (should that be an issue for you ??)
One point to bear in mind, as others have stated, it is not something that can be done 'on the cheap'.
It must be addressed in the correct way with the necessary support, infrastructure and funding and with no short cuts.
Most of the equipment suppliers are a bit more open these days with training and tech support for NHS tech staff, but they were very protective of their business a good few years ago.
Economies of scale would be the first issue to consider - i.e what equipment type/models you have on site, numbers, commonality etc.
then look at the training and tooling costs with the manufacturer.(they will often help you - but at a cost of course)
As KM suggested it is a good idea if you can have the influence to include such costs as these within the purchase deal,(full technical training for instance, can become a very small cost to the Trust if negotiated with a large purchase).
The manufactureres are a help (usually) so involve them at some stage.
IN SUMMARY:-
I would definately do it again if i was in such a position
Good luck
Steve.

Thanks to all!

We currently have Servo 300's a Servo i and a couple of older Hamiltons. I was planning to take on the Servo's after some generic vent training plus manufacturer training to test the water. We do now have a greater influence regarding purchasing and have had EBME training added to the 'bundle' of recent purchases (result). As always it's the older equipment that causes the problem (back tracking etc). Thanks again to all.

If you don't mind me asking Brad - what generic training were you considering? I'm interested in some generic training in ventilators and ventilation and I'm wondering what's out there. Can anybody else help with that one?