EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Alaris Asena syringe drivers

We've had a number of failures of the pole clamps on the Alaris Asena pumps. They are distorting if they're tightened too much.

Alaris deny that there's a problem with them but our experiences seem to indicate otherwise. Has anyone else encoutered this problem?

REPORT IT TO THE MDA.
SUPPLIERS ALWAYS SAY THEY HAVE NO HISTORY OF
A PROBLEM, THEN YOUVE COVERED YOUR OWN BACK.
IF THE MDA GET SEVERAL REPORTS THEY
MAY LOOK INTO IT. AT LEAST BY REPORTING IT YOUVE
RAISED THE ALARM IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG WHILST ON A PATIENT.

Yeah we are having similar problems here with those pole clamps on the Asena. One look at them should alert you to the fact that they are far too small and weedie. However we also have about a forty per cent failure rate on our pumps with the electronics including quite a few out of box failures. There has been no one specific problem but there have been battery failures. Anyone else having these problems.

I've recently found 2 or 3 Asenas with the pole clamp problem you descibed. After 12 months+ on the wards I didn't think that was too bad, but I'm keeping a beady eye open for other examples.
The few MT errors we were having seem to have settled, but keep pushing Alaris they're not going to admit to problems without a little help.
Andrea

Recently I was at an Alaris training course for the Signature Gold Infusion pumps. The Problem with the syringe driver was mentioned at the end of the day and the reply from the Alaris training was that the problem was down to the plastic end to the pole clamp. This has now been changed to a metal end.

We have experienced numerous examples of bent pole clamps.

Alaris have been informed but have not rectified the problem to date.

Our main failures are SF9 & SF10 errors necessitating the replacement of the motor plate assembly.

Most of these failures can be attributed to being dropped or knocked by the user.

Alaris have now started sending motor plates with a small shim which should reduce damage of this part due to being dropped.

Recieving the new replacement kit depends upon the part number you use, and the kit with the shim costs a few pence more.