EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Diathermy Patient plates

I'm beginning to suspect a poor batch of patient plates causing us a lot of Diathermy alarms (REM alarm). Has anyone experience of good or bad patient plate manufacturers?

suggest you enquire further via the MHRA. Others may have reported the possibility centrally and do not log in to EBME. ie. ASDU, Nurses etc

Thanks Graham, I haven't found anything on there though.
I put the post on because of the increase in users reporting Diathermy machines being faulty, which show no fault when we test them. We believe the patient pad is the only piece in the system that we can't properly test - any thoughts?

User training?
Are there new staff who do not know how to operate the equipment correctly?
Robert

If you can’t find anything wrong, it’s because there’s nothing wrong with the kit. As Robert hints, the “problem” will be the user(s). No need to make a Federal Case out of it, Mate (eg, involving MHRA and all that nonsense), just get someone in there and make sure those plates are being applied correctly!

Is it happening on all your electrosurgery equipment or just one perticular make/model

It's happening on a number of machines, however one particular theatre have begun to notice the frequency of alarms and are insisting the machine is faulty. The REM circuit resistance range is precisely within the spec'd limits.
The theatres changed supplier of the patient plates about a year ago, so the link is a bit tenuous - but is still there.