The importance of daily maintenance and upkeep of medical equipment

I. Daily Inspection of Medical Equipment

As the department responsible for managing hospital equipment, the Equipment Department ensures the normal operation of equipment, which is a concrete manifestation of service to the clinic. A high equipment failure rate has a huge impact on the department's efficiency and reduces the service life of the equipment. To ensure the normal operation of the equipment, the Equipment Department needs to conduct daily inspections of the equipment. The inspection content should include:

1. Equipment Appearance Inspection: First, check the equipment for any damage, determine the cause, and urge the clinical departments to take good care of the equipment. As the saying goes, cherish the equipment as you would your loved one, with care and attention to prevent problems;

2. Instrument Surface Cleanliness: When checking the instrument, attention should be paid to the cleanliness of the equipment surface, especially for expensive instruments such as MRI, CT, and ultrasound. These instruments are precious but sensitive; even small issues can cause equipment malfunctions. In particular, excessive dust in the filter can seriously affect the instrument's heat dissipation, leading to short circuits in the circuit board and a higher instrument failure rate. Our hospital's LOGIQ E9 experienced two failures due to filter problems, which highlights deficiencies in our department's previous work, particularly the lack of filter cleaning. This will be improved in the future;

3. Equipment Power Supply Check: Before turning on the equipment, check the power supply to ensure that the equipment is properly switched on and off. Before turning on, connect the mains power first, then the host power, and ensure that the equipment power switch is closed. The reverse process applies for shutdown;

3. Check of Equipment Accessories: Before and after powering on the equipment, inspect related accessories to ensure that necessary accessories are not missing, damaged, or leaking electricity. The Equipment Department should promptly address any issues with accessories to maintain normal equipment operation;

4. Complete the Equipment Inspection Record Form.

II. Daily Maintenance of Medical Equipment

After inspecting the equipment, we should also perform regular maintenance. Currently, our hospital's equipment maintenance is mainly divided into Level I and Level II maintenance:

1. Level I Maintenance

Maintenance includes: equipment exterior maintenance, instrument filter cleaning, replacement of wearing parts, equipment accessory inspection, equipment grounding, and equipment calibration. Level I maintenance mainly ensures that the equipment can resolve issues independently without external assistance.

2. Level II Maintenance

Maintenance includes: verifying the completion of Level I maintenance, checking the power supply of medical equipment in the area, ensuring that measuring equipment is within its validity period, checking whether equipment placement is fixed, checking equipment heat dissipation and ventilation, ensuring that devices with rechargeable batteries are charging or fully charged, verifying the completeness of equipment accessories, checking the functionality of emergency equipment, and reporting malfunctioning equipment according to procedures. Level II maintenance aims to reduce the occurrence of equipment failures, addressing existing issues using the quickest and most convenient methods to quickly ensure equipment service for clinical use. Level II maintenance is performed every six months.

III. Daily Maintenance by Clinical Departments

In addition to equipment maintenance by the Equipment Department, daily maintenance within each department also plays a vital role. Clinical departments should perform daily surface cleaning, power checks, functional checks, and accessory checks on equipment within their departments. After all, the using department is in constant contact with the equipment and is aware of any problems. For example, after use on a patient, the coupling agent for the ultrasound probe should be wiped clean to prevent it from drying on the probe's surface and affecting its service life.

Summary: Medical equipment is sensitive; problems arise easily if not carefully maintained. While covered by warranty, post-warranty repairs can be costly. Only when using departments and support departments focus on equipment maintenance can failure rates be reduced, improving hospital revenue.  

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