EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Class II TV's in patient areas

To tie in with your attempt to get back to TV's, the Safersleep rep said that the uint they brought in was essentially a modified "Pateintline" unit with a RS-232 port on the back. the device they brought in bore no resemblance whatever to the one shown on the website. It looked like a battered monitor with an aluminium plate fitted on the back. I fell into the trap of saying "where is the PC then" the rep pointed out that it was built-it to the monitor- ooops. The eqipment was brought in for a demo but if they come back for a proper trial I hope the anaesthetists insist that they bring in the "proper" devcie which hopefully will be compliant. If I were leading the trial I would send them away without even looking at the system.

No doubt you be pleased to hear (or, perhaps, impressed even), Brian, that I've got a new Volt Stick.

But not a yellow one, unfortunately. This one is in "Day Glo" green, and has the buzzer (sounder) facility. And, of course it both buzzes and flashes away merrily each time it passes over a "power brick".

I can't find any "medical grade" (filtered) bricks around, however. Are you saying (or, perhaps, hoping) that these should not cause any indications of the buzzing and/or flashing type?

I only ask, as I would have thought anything with mains voltage in it would cause a reaction. The (few) medical bits and pieces I have around here certainly seem to. But, these are all of the modern, plastic, type of course.

Bill. Show them the door until they have decent kit ready!

After all, as we have seen, their website suggests that this is not only already the case, but has been for a number of years!

Strange (?) though that the infamous "Patientline" rears it's head again!

Does it monitor (collect data) on anaesthetic content and gas flows etc. (I'm presuming that it does, if it's to be of any real use)? How does it do that, I wonder? RS-232 ... to where (what)?

Or is it just leeching data from whatever "proper" patient monitor(s) happen to be in play?

If you take a look at the RS web site you will see a whole range of SMPSs that comply with IEC 60601, which relates to the earth leakage current. A voltstick is only an indication, some of them being triggered by magnetic as well as electrostatic fields.
If the voltstick lights up on the case of a plastic enclosure it could be just because there is a live track on a pcb just inside the enclosure. If on the other hand it lights up when you touch the body on the output plug, that would indicate that there is more than just a couple of volts on the plug. THe final proof is always to measure the leakage current with a meter.