EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Damaged equipment in transit

Anyone else been caught out like this? We recently sent an expensive piece of test equipment away for annual calibration. The item was packaged properly by the technician prior to transit. We used the same courier that we had used in previous years for the transfer of numerous pieces of equipment with no previous problems. As it was an expensive item the technician asked the Stores people on site here to ensure that the equipment was insured adequately. They assured him that it was. So far so good.

The item consequently became damaged in transit. We were obviously informed of this fact from the company that do the calibration. The claims department for the courier company were contacted and admitted liability almost straight away. It has taken over 2 months after a lengthy paperwork procedure, and this week the claims department informed us that they had paid the appropriate amount of money into Trust funds to replace the damaged item.

The item would have cost £4080 to repair and will cost over £5000 to replace. They (the courier) have paid us the grand sum of £300! They work it out at 25kg x £12 = £300. It is all in the (very) small print. Apparently all the National couriers have more or less the same terms and conditions. Ouch.

Solution:- find a way to calibrate kit yourself. Or collaborate with other NHS hospitals in your area with the same aim (one specializes in one type of kit, someone else specializes in another). One of the pluses there is that NHS transport gets used. Another is the turn around time could (should) be quicker. Another is that it would cost less. Once again, dare I mention the National Health Service (as in, how come the NHS doesn't have its own calibration lab, traceable to NPL etc.)?

Unfortunately in this case we could not calibrate the equipment ourselves as it is a specialised piece of kit - (Eurotherm Chesil chart recorder) used to test Autoclaves. In any case that would be a secondary calibration and therefore not traceable to national standards.

Good point about collaboration with other hospitals though. The technician involved was chasing that up this week. We have recently merged with 2 other local trusts and I suspect that this will be on an agenda for discussion pretty soon. I am not sure we could loan ours out on a regular basis though as it does take a bit of a hammering use wise. The only reason we havn't needed it for the past 2 months is that the Autoclaves in our HSDU have recently undergone an annual test by Welsh Health Estates and they use their own test equipment. It is during this time that we send our kit away for cal.

Completely agree with your comments about the supposed 'National Health Service' and our lack of an NHS Calibration laboratory. This exactly what HM Forces do and it seems to work for them. It would save taxpayers money and time in my opinion.

Hi Mike,

Do you have a defined yearly schedule for all your test equipment? You may want to look at the trend of how many actually fall out of the accuracy range after each calibration. Many a time, the need for annual calibration is not really needed. Perhaps a two-year cycle is really good enough. I believe over the years you must have collected the test results of the calibration and this can really help you plan for the next calibration. Manufacturers or accredited calibration companies will like it if you send it on an annual basis as this is another source of revenue for them.

Yes (as has been stated before) I would always advise just a calibration check annually, and only send kit away when (if) it actually "fails" a cal check (very rare in my experience). Part of my argument also is how can you be sure that the instrument is still in cal after being bumped (thrown, kicked and dropped) about in transit?

So, devise and document a method of "cal checking" all your test instruments (and, whilst you're at it, ask yourself how accurate each needs to be, anyway), and take it from there. I see lots of test kit around these days marked with labels saying for indication only ... which is often good enough in many (if not most) cases, I would have thought. And lastly, how long is your stuff away when you send it for calibration (not much use to you then, is it)?

In my humble opinion, the whole calibration thing has got out of hand ... in fact it is a racket, and one that serves very little real purpose, apart from being a nice little money spinner for the "calibration houses".

Well said, Geoff.

Hi Roger, Geoff,
Thanks for the comments so far. I can confirm that we do have a defined schedule for calibration of our departmental test equipment. This is how it works. So called "minor" pieces of test equipment are used and labelled as "for indication purposes only" and do not go away for cal. The "standard" or "routine" items that we have such as our Infusion tester, NIBP Analyser and Defib Analyser have a nominal period of annual calibration. However, sometimes we allow this period to lapse and it may be as much as 18 months before these items go away for cal. Otherwise as you quite rightly say, it can be a nice little earner for the calibration houses at the taxpayers expense.

This particular item (Chesil chart recorder) does have an annual calibration cycle for good reason. The HSDU Unit in question is ISO registered (as are we) and the Departmental Manager asks for, on a regular basis, our maintenance records, test records, (for Autoclave equipment) and calibration certificates for items that we use to test his equipment. He needs this to keep up his ISO certification.

Furthermore, our work practices, documentation and test equipment that we use are "looked at" by Welsh Health Estates when they do their annual check of the HSDU Department. Under their "guidance" we use the same test equipment as them.

The company that we use to calibrate this particular piece of equipment (IRPCO in Swansea) are very good and normally the equipment is away for about 2 weeks for calibration. As I explained previously, we send the kit away when WHE are on site to do their annual check and our equipment is not needed.

... and is the chart recorder ever found to be out of calibration, I wonder?

Yes, Mike, thanks for that. All good stuff, no doubt about it. Sounds like you've got it all pretty much squared away.

But what is the point of all that ISO stuff, and all that checking (of documents)? Were instruments not being properly sterilized before all those procedures were put in place? Was there any evidence of anything like that?

What if I sent my multimeter away to be checked and calibrated every month (week, day)? Would customers pay more for my services because of that?

Hi Geoff,
We digress from my original question, but...

The Chesil was purchased in Feb 03 and as far as I am aware, it has never been out of cal.

As for your question as to the ISO stuff - In all honesty I could not say that ISO has been a major benefit to our department. The ISO procedures that we use are audited regularly and are based on how we work in our department anyway - "say what you do, do what you say, prove it". (obviously they are all written following recognised ISO documentation).

We didn't have any problem getting ISO accreditation originally, but I am not sure all the effort by various people over the years has been worth it. The major benefit has been that we have been able to use the ISO documentation and procedures as evidence for our Welsh Risk Pool annual assessment in the recent past. We were informed by the Director of Estates a long time ago that we would have to go for it (ISO) and that was that. It has cost a lot of taxpayers money over the years.

I shouldn't answer for the HSDU department as to whether all the instruments are being sterilised properly as they have their own work procedures, but I am pretty sure that the HSDU Manager would say that they were. I am more concerned that the equipment that we maintain for them is looked after correctly and efficiently.

We have at least 2 Flukes that I know of that have never been sent away for cal. I would recommend that people make a mental risk assessment on what the calibration period for each piece of test equipment should be (where possible) and then stick to it.

Geoff/Mike,

ISO or JCI or PDS are all that beautify the organization and is strictly management decision. A lot of time and tax payer money are pour in every year just to maintain a quality system which is always good for the patients. But honestly, I personally would like more time spend on physical work of upkeeping the biomed kit instead of spending many hours just to prepare for periodic audit and ultimately passing the audit.