EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Staffing Levels for EBME deptments.

Where do you draw the line? If a faulty/damaged device is not reported is that not a failing of the internal procedures? Educating the clinical staff as to the importance of reporting failures is imperitive. As for spending time on the wards two thirds of my day is spent at ward level both servicing and teaching nursing staff how to use the kit!!!

Where do we draw the line? As regards to scheduled, assigned, work such as inspections and PM, the line gets drawn at the Asset Register.

Which items get included (or not) on the Asset Register, especially at the lower end (that is, the flowmeters, the oxygen regulators etc.) is a matter of judgment.

But, as regards responding to requests from clinical users for technical assistance, well ... there is no line!

Whether time is spent in the workshop, or on the wards ... servicing or training, repairing or managing, there is always much to be done. Never once in my "career" have I been able to say I was finished, up-do-date, with nothing else left to do. That is in the nature of the constantly moving target that is biomed work. But whatever it is we're doing, time is all any of us has. Best spend it wisely!

Resources, procedures, and all the rest vary greatly from place to place, and hospital to hospital. But my own (perhaps academic) interest is in what we might call "the general case". Trying to prise out "best practice" in the tech support of in-service medical equipment. There's nothing sinister about my intentions, believe me ... quite the reverse, in fact!

And unless maintenance is recorded, it "didn't happen".

This means that they need to be individualy numbered so a record can be Kept. We would like to but we don't have the time. I don't think many deparments would, unless they just swap them out after so many years.

Hi Webbie, bit confused by your statement that kit needs to be numbered but there is not the time, or perhaps I have misunderstood what you are refering to. Do you not do some form of acceptance test when equipment is delivered? This is the point at which we (that is the company I work for), add the item to the asset database (and add the unique identifier, ie, asset#), do the safety test and do a functional test (at very least). This ensures that the item is fit for use. Is this not standard practice? If the item does not have, itself, a unique identifier (serial#) then they can be added as a group (see below)

When it comes to small items like regs, yep, fair enough, let them go through to the keeper (as far as initial testing goes), but the practice of asseting them as "all regs on ward x" and then registering the testing/pm (change the O ring if needed) works very well.

Now, under a 'risk based PM system" is this nessesary?, well, that may be addressed under another current post, when I get the time.

I know it's a ball ache, but to keep on top of everything ALL equipment under your responsibility must be catalogued including the small low cost items. I'm sure that if I pulled up the record for any of our flowmeters, the maintenance costs will far outstrip the purchase cost (in fact the cost of just putting one onto our inventory would probably be equivalent to half the purchase price). What you and the money men have to remember is that it's all aboout the patient! If someone decided to replace flowmeters every three years and carried out no maintenance on them, the Trust could be found liable if an incident occurred. After all a sticky ball could give a false reading which could cause a hypoxic patient to deteriorate, possibly putting them into ITU, or worse! We always recommend that our ATO's clean their balls at least once a year ;-)

We don't acceptance test flow meters either. Note I don't manage the department I'm just one of the monkeys. We certainly never clean our balls. But if your worried about incidents surley each item needs a seperate number.

Surly a patient should be monitored when on 02 therapy!! Next we will be suggesting calibrating the flowmeters!!

good point

Yes!

You cant be suggesting this should be done annually are you. There are far more important things in order of priority. Yes on a repair to verify function.