77th day of attachment

I got the chance to be some repair for simple devices such as the mattress alternating pressure system and ecg recorder. For the ECG recorder, the nurses keep saying that the printed waveforms have a lot of noises that makes some informations in the waveform lost. I went to the particular ward to check the device by using patient stimulator by selecting normal ECG. The fault lies with the printer as the paper is not placed properly and may caused by any slight movement of the patient's body that create this problem. For the mattress alternating pressure system, the internal wires are being exposed so i placed the insulation wire around it.

76th day of attachment

Today, i went to Drager Medical which is now under drager and siemens company with Mr Sin and my fellow colleague for one-day training for monitoring, Gamma XL and Delta XL patient monitors. They are quite similar to siemens' patients monitor in terms of functions and design. Gamma XL and Delta XL patient monitors are slightly more advanced compared to siemens.

Delta XL only able to display parameters and waveforms after the various accessories are inserted to the ports while Gamma XL will display those automatically. Both of the monitors allow the user to transfer data from monitor to monitor in the central system which means there is a common network throughout the wards. There are 5 Delta XL in Alexandra Hospital and so far i did not get to see one of them. You can have another monitor for displaying trend while another displaying the various waveforms and parameters. It also able to give a very detailed diagnostic waveforms of ECG that some doctors required.

The trainer, Dave Koh from Drager medical who work under drager for more than 3 years. He demostrated the various functions and service mode to us. More of technical area as i can say. He also told us a few common problems for these monitor. We got the chance to see the disassembly of the monitors and the trainees were privileged to assemble the parts back. More hands on involved for the afternoon. Gamma XL seems more difficult to assemble it back as some of the connectors are fragile while Delta XL only have to dissemble when the main board or the accessories port are damaged.

He also demostrated the preventive maintenance procedures in order for our better understanding .

75th day of attachment

I start to emphasize more on the repair techniques rather than doing preventive maintenance. However, both are important tasks to be performed. Repair techniques are skills that being cultivated through long experiences and no one are to be able to take that skills away from you. From what i have learnt so far, I can't just do repair without understanding why i have to replace this part of the component and the function of the particular component. The more i practise in repair devices ranging from simple to complex, the better i can get in dealing with them.

There are pretty much repair being called and majority of them seem to be urgent. Sometimes, we have to deal with the urgent calls first as the doctor may required it to diagnose the patient and unable to find replacement for it. I received a call from the doctor at Clinic C about the Slit lamp, 900 BQ, unable to work due to absence of light source. The only reason that we suspected was the filament in the light bulb blown. I replaced the light bulb and found out that it is not compatible with the one that i am dealing with. Therefore, i went back to the workplace to find the suitable lamp bulb to replace it. After replacing, there is light source. I feel that may be the contact with the bulb is not really good can be one of the factors.

There is a ventilator having an error message saying " Power loss and recovery. EST required". When i went up to SICU with my colleague, i found out that it is the 840 series that i was trained at tyco healthcare with marcus and fu hai. Before calling the vendor, i have to carry out 2 tests that i was introduced during the training which are the SST (Short Safety Test) and EST ( Electrical Safety Test). I think both tests accordingly to the instructions that are given on the screem. Initially, i have some difficulties as i have to recall for what i was taught in tyco. As i get along, i start to get the hang of it. After the tests were carried out, the ventilator working fine and no error message is being displayed. My colleague and i felt that may be the SST is carried out incompletely as it has to be done before operation.

74th day of attachment

I continue with the corrective maintenance while waiting for my PCA pump to be returned to the Operation Theatre.

I started to go more in depth of analyzing the fault for the propaq CS242 monitor by checking fuse blown. The common 2 problems that lead the device unable to run on AC are the adaptor is faulty or the fuse blown. I swapped the adaptor and the problem is still there. Therefore, I concluded that the fuse is blown. However, after replacing the fuse, the fuse is only able to last for a while.

The preventive maintenance list for July is out so I started doing maintenance for the infusion pumps. I brought 2 TE-331 syringe pumps from ward 4 since the volumetric pumps are being used by the patients. There are quite a bit of read-up to do for me to know the maintenance as there is always a first time to do things. Looking at the specifications of the pump, it is a Class 1 type CF. This pump is still similar to the TE-311. The difference is it has more functions such as an occlusion indicator which show the occlusion approaching soon. There is inspection list attached at the back of the service manual for future reference while doing the PM. I spent the whole afternoon to do and understand the maintenance of this syringe pump.

73th day of attachment

This is the last week of June and I have yet finished the maintenance for PCA Pump, Graseby 3300. After the month of June, Technician who is appointed to do repair for the month will be sent to Jurong Medical Centre for repair and commissioning instead of doing it in Alexandra Hospital. Jurong Medical Centre is mainly for research and it is part of Alexandra Hospital.

I could only brought down one PCA pump since the other is out to the ward for use and unsure when it will be returned back. I think may be I will try again after I returned the Pump when I am done with it.

There is one transport physiologic monitor having faulty connector at DEM. We always have to bring a patient stimulator whenever we received calls about monitor being faulty or just parts of it. After analyzing the fault, I found out that it could not run on AC power supply or being charged.

A porter brought down 3 devices down for repair which are the Pulmo-Aide nebuliser, stethoscope and intermittent suction unit. I managed to complete the repair for intermittent suction unit. I got to repair or replacing the stethoscope for the first time as my colleagues usually repaired it.

There seems much repair for me to be done for today since one of my colleagues is still on leave while the other is having MC. I am trying my best to make their workload lighter by doing more repairs today. So far so well, I have only done 3 out of 10 devices. Trying to push my own limit to complete as much as device as possible to learn more of repair.

There is an internal audit in BME by a Laboratory Manager who is appointed to conduct it and it is today. Before the actual audit, there is a trial one to get the staffs in prepare for the real one in terms of common questions being asked such as the location of procedures in the intranet. Audit is taken place throughout the whole hospital to renew the license of the ISO as it is important that Alexandra Hospital is ISO certified. The auditor will also take a look at the inventory list.

I went to Clinic A to transfer the pictures for the plantar images that will be used for the search on a disc for Dr. Chelsea Law. I just have to pass her when she is back from her trip to Cambodia. Audit trial drive went well fine but the auditor emphasizes more of the safety hazards and what equipments that we used to justify whether the medical devices is performing well after repair.