67th day of attachment

There are quite a few devices due for maintenance and more devices sent for repair by the porters. We managed to finish all of the devices that are requested for preventive maintenance and to be done by us. The rest of the maintenance have to rely on the vendors as we are well trained to do the maintenance for it.

Baxter infusion pumps are taken for software installation and preventive maintenance if necessary. So far, 10 pumps are ready to send back to MICU. There will be more Baxter infusion pumps coming as Alexandra Hospital trying to get rid of the STC-503 since the parts are no longer available in the market.

I arranged the service reports according to the type of work that they belong to such as under warranty or contract. If the devices are under warranty, administrative staff has to scan the report and placed them in the folder. Otherwise, the reports have to sort out according to the company name and then the serial number of device. Before these all to be done, technician has to update the record by stating the reference number of the report and done by which vendor.

66th day of attachment

The batteries seem to be not charging despite of charging the device overnight. I replaced the batteries and checked whether is it really the battery fault. I brought down a few devices for preventive maintenance including the PCA Graseby 3300 Pump. It is my first time in doing the infusion tests for it. My colleague demonstrates the procedures for Bolus, flow and occlusion tests. An empty syringe is used to act as the pressure trigger. There are several settings to be done on the infusion device analyzer and PCA pump. After replacing the batteries, the stepper motor seem be to malfunctioning. The screw that used for keeping the gear in place is worn out. The screw could only be found at a few hardware stores.

I spent the whole morning trying to figure how to carry out the tests for PCA pump. My colleague brought back the blood analyzer due to the same problem arose again which is temperature test failed and unable to record the first patient’s readings. However, the temperature test indicated pass when it is done in the emergency department.

I still have difficulty dealing with the flow test. I think I may need more practices on the functional tests for PCA 3300 Pump to make sure I get myself familiar with it.

65th day of attachment

There was far much more repair to be done instead of preventive maintenance. The terumo infusion pump that I brought back from ward 10 has another new fault. Initially, there was “Er 2” displayed. I went to search for service manual since it is my first time came across this problem. The manual stated that there is a self-test on the accuracy of motor rotation. For my case, I dismantle the device and assemble it again as I am afraid that the connection of the connector will be wrong. After solving that problem, I found out that the motor is making a lot of noise while it is working. I tried cleaning the equipment, as the gears are dirty. I hope that will solve the problem.

Spiegeler warmer (telescope warmer), atmos medizinTechnik GmbH + Co.KG. There was a foul smell coming out during suctioning the patient ear. There is a suction handpiece that used to suck the earwax in case of any ear infection. We clean the whole hand piece with tap water. May be the table of the treatment unit did not sterilize as they usually sterilize every piece of tools on the treatment unit. Another fault is no heat generating on the unit. The filaments were not heated. Thankfully there is a reset button to switch on the heating element.

IRMA blood analyzer from MICU has a new fault that is unable to record the first patient’s reading after the cartilage is being inserted to the device. This device is intended for use with IRMA cartridges for the in-vitro measurement of various critical care analytes in human whole blood such as calcium, sodium, chloride and potassium ions, pressure of oxygen and carbon dioxide and most important one is the pH value of the blood.

There seem far more things for me to learn within 5 months. After greasing the fingers and the gears, I assembled the parts together. When I start running it, the gear moves smoothly with the stepper motor. However, the problem with here is that the gear not moving and displayed Er 2 again. I think Er 2 means malfunctioning of the stepper motor. I have to charge the battery overnight to make sure whether the batteries able to hold charge. If not, I have to find ways to replace the batteries. It really takes time to have a sense of fulfill to complete the whole fault of this device. I feel that I keep making the device’s fault becoming more than one. It seems like I creating own fault to challenge myself.

64th day of attachment

Continue our journey of Preventive maintenance by starting off to X-Ray departments. We had done the aspirator and video printer from there. There seem more devices due for this month compared to the list. After checking with colleague, most of the unlisted. About seven devices remain unallocated. There is an infusion pump that was hidden in the linen room at ward 10. Thankfully, we found it and preventive maintenance is then done for it. When it was taken back, I found out the tubing clamp is faulty which unable to clamp the tubing. While analyzing the fault, the rod is croak. Therefore, the solution to the fault is replacing the rod and cleans the area where the rod is inserted with alcohol pad.
During the later part of the day, we went to SOC L, Endoscopy and occupational therapy rehabilitation. We only able to do the maintenance for Endoscopy at 3pm as the last case will usually end at 3pm.We spent almost the whole day doing preventive maintenance. It is quite a time consuming routine to perform every month. For the last hour, I did some repair like solving the leakage of double flowmeter by tapping the area of oxygen probe that is connected to the twin flowmeter. There’s the usual problem that arise for flowmeter. The preventive maintenance for transport physiologic monitor, propaq series is changed from 6 monthly to yearly to prevent any confusion among biomedical engineering staffs.

Since my other colleague is doing an infusion pump, STC-503 and she suspected that the HIC board is spoilt so exchanged the HIC board to make sure that’s the fault. When I turned on the pump, I saw smokes fuming out from the HIC board area. I was surprised and afraid that the wrong connection may cause it. My supervisor told me that there is nothing wrong with the connection of the connectors to the board. One of the resistors in the board is burnt. However, we are not sure which resistor is burnt and the manufacturer no longer producing STC-503 PCB boards as production of STC-508 and STC-503 terminated.

63th day of attachment

We are going to spend the whole day doing preventive maintenance as we are slightly behind schedule. I finally found the infusion volumetric pump that located at Emergency. We had to do the maintenance for emergency and geriatric medicine rehabilitation. Usually, there will be a lot patients coming in to those departments and nurses or doctors may need to use those equipments that are listed for preventive maintenance.

We decide to spend the afternoon doing preventive maintenance at diabetes research laboratory and evening at Endoscopy department.

In the morning, we did a quite a number of physiotherapy devices such as treadmills and nerve stimulator. The preventive maintenance is not only doing the safety test. We also have to try on the devices such as increasing the speed and angle. We actually have to get on the treadmill to carry out the functional tests. One of the safety features for this treadmill is having emergency stop. While we were carrying out the preventive maintenance, there were a lot of elderly people having physiotherapy sessions so we have slight difficulty in finishing all of the preventive maintenance for the department. Fortunately, we managed to complete all of them. When we finished doing in these departments, it is time for lunch. Time seems to pass really quickly when you are actually doing maintenance or repair.

In the afternoon, the first stop is diabetes research laboratory for maintenance. There were about seven devices required for maintenance. While the researcher separating the sample according to the components, we performed the preventive maintenance on the remaining devices. There is a spectrophotometer also known as DNA/RNA/ Protein analyzer which tests for the quality and quantity of DNA in the sample. Vortex mixer is a device used to vortex the sample with a specific reagent in order to mix the solution well. It is also used with the centrifuge. The mixed solution is being placed in the centrifuge for spinning in order for the reagent at the side for further mixing. It is also used for spinning blood sample in separate the different components of blood such as plasma, white and red blood cells.