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Am wondering are there any ideas/examples out there of putting operator equipment manuals on a hospital intranet? Has anyone done it or show me what it looks like? The idea is to have info available to wards through the PC rather than paper manuals,thanks. Cheers, kieran

Hello Kieran,

I am about to start this process in our Trust.

I have obtained a statement from our IT director regarding the security of our intranet site and am about to start asking suppliers for their consent to copy the literature.

When i have spoken to company reps/trainers they are mostly more than happy for me to do this, but i feel a letter would be appropriate.

A lot of comapnies provide the literature in a digital format, but for the older bits of kit i am going to have to scan user books.

The letter will also state it is the Trust's responsabilty to ensure the information is up to date.

The idea has a good response by staff, but wil not replace any training, the idea of the manuals as a resource if you have any queries or require a copy for a patient etc.

Good luck and let me know how you're getting on,

Tracy

Beware

Although a lot of manufacturers are happy for manuals to go on the intranet and will provide a pdf version. Others are not so keen as they charge a fortune for replacement manuals and therefore will not consent to you coping then into a PDF format. As manuals tend to be copyright this will lead to problems if they found out.

Out of the companies we approached I guess about 70% were more than happy with some supplying a PDF version to avoid us having to scan and the remaining 30% said absolutely not.

The key as Tracy has pointed out is to write to them and get a written response.

If possible the first page should have a statement that the manual was up to date as of (whatever date) and keep reviewing when time allows. Therefore if a user manages to get hold of a more up to date copy themselve they can make a judgement which one is more recent.