38th DaY of aTtAchMent

It was about to rain when i was about to reach my BME department so i rushed down to Operation theatre and day surgery before they started having cases coming in. The first place that i went is Operation theatre at level 2 but the nurses were having meeting so it is a fruitile trip. When i managed to get TE-171 infusion pump from day surgery, the weather was really bad as it keeps raining. The interesting part is that i was too early and nursing officer asked me not to go before 8am.

There was a commissioning of ultrasound scanner from Philips at x-ray department. The only difference is that it has this sonoCT mode that gives a better and sharper image. The vendor will just use a probe to scan a phantom which has pins placed at certain positions. They did the pentration and resolution test.

There was a PCA pump, Graseby 3100, sent for PM from ward 11. Since i am doing all the pumps for PM this month, i tried my best to look for the service manual for the exact function checklist. There are about 10 tests to be carried out but only 3 importatnt tests are required. They are alarm silence test, flow test and occlusion test. Firstly, for the alarm silence test, you have to place a 50ml syringe and start the device. Opening the plunger clamp that is used for infusing a certain amount of liquid medication. If the device is working, you will expect the alarm to sound intermittenly and LED lights up with "CLAMP OPENED" being displayed. Secondly, you have to set 99.9ml/hr for delivery rate with 30/40 ml of water and let it run for exactly 6 minutes (using the infusion device analyzer). The acceptable range is 9.79 to 10.19 ml. Lastly, set the same delivery rate as the flow test and start the device with 50 ml syringe filled with 30 ml of water. The acceptable range for occlusion is 4.84 to 11.61 PSI.

37th DaY oF aTtAcHmEnT

Searching from high to low for the infusion pumps from ward 1, 2 and 10. Thankfully, i managed to find the infusion pump from ward 1 and 2 but for ward 10, i found a infusion pump that was due last month so brought back to do preventive maintenance. MICU sent down an infusion pump for preventive maintenance.

I managed to finish the battery, occlusion and flow test before lunch. However, the leakage current test only able to be done after lunch as Faz brought the safety analyzer with her for PM. while i was doing a flow test for STC 508, the whole department suddenly short circuit for a moment and i have to redo the flow test as the infusion device analyzer does not have internal battery.

There was a commissioning for tonometer which is an equipment on trial for a few months. The vendor will assemble the device and test the functions according to the checklist. The vendor will use their eyes for the function test. There is a tonometer which looks like a pen (tonopen) has the same property as this device. The only difference is tonopen has to be placed directly on the cornea whereas the tonometer has a distance apart from the camera and jet of air will be delivered to the eye when recording the measurement.

36th DaY of AtTaChMent

I came work slightly earlier as usual to put preventive maintenance for the terumo pumps which are infusion and syringe pumps. I have 21 pumps to do for this month and more than half is from SICU (Surgery Intensive Care Unit) . For them, the pumps are very critical as a patient requires at least 2 or 3 pumps at a time which depends on how critical the case is. The first thing that i do once i reached the workplace is to go to the ward to get 2 pumps at 1 time.

Around 9:30am, a vendor gave us a hour training of the blood analyzer which able to measure the amount of gas such as pCO2 and pO2 and electrolytes such as Ca+2 . Firstly, he started telling us the common problem is the slot, that usually nurses will slot the cartridge into, will wear and tear due the placing and removing cartridge. He demostrate the correct method of removing the slot, doing calibration and temperature test and placing the roll of paper into the printer. IRMA's blood anaylzer is better as it is not only portable , you can print the data instantly. The blood test has to be done immediately after it is drawn from the patient. If you want to make sure the readings that you get from the analyzer is accurate, you have to do it on the analyzer and also with a lab techician doing the test at the same time. The duration of blood placing on table increases, the readings will differs each minute you delay. Secondly, the cartridge can be kept at the room temperature environment for 6 months. The nurses have to undergo the training how to carry out the blood test on the analyzer. Lastly, there are sensors in the cartridge in order for the device to detect the sample. We have to press the syringe down quickly in order to remove the gel that is covering the sensors.

After the whole day, i am only able to do 4 syringe pumps as the rest of the pumps are being used by the patients. i got to see STC 527 which looks quite similar to STC 523 but the only main different is that STC 527 able to count the amount of fluid is pumped into the patient.

35th DaY of AtTaChMent

There were pretty many devices that sent for repair including the laderal suction unit also known as portable aspirator. Today is also the first day of may so a new month of preventive maintenance starts again. pretty excited as there seems many more devices for me to handle. I helped out by writing the class type for each individual devices for the leakage test as usual. However, i kind of doing administrative work more than doing the preventive maintenance as Norainie is not around so i just opened out work orders and answering and making calls.

Got back the sphygnomamometer back and this time, the nurse assumed that the mercury dried up but the fact is they did not unlock the bottle in order for mercury to flow. However, in the afternoo, i did some inspection of devices that were known as faulty and their accessories. saw the nihon korden's physiologic monitor as the problem is that the cuff is unable to be pump until 120 mmHg at least. It is due to the the setting of the pressure limit is too low. After adjusting the setting, the pressure is able to reach until 170 mmHg. Lee Chong suspected one of the end user tends to adjust the setting pretty often.

Tomorrow will be pump day for me as i will be doing preventive maintenance for infusion and syringe pump while Faz is not around for the afternoon and have training for he blood analyzer from IDS in the morning.