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Tips for maintaining ventilators (until your government gift arrives)

Emergency Management Alert, February 21, 2008

In our February 12 edition of EMA we reported that the Bush administration recently allocated $25 million for new ventilators (those considered were between $8,000 to $10,000 apiece.)

First of all, that's not a lot of ventilators to go around. Secondly, even if you get one, you'll need to keep the devices you have in good repair. At one facility, a faulty ventilator resulted in the death of a patient when the equipment failed to sound the alarm when the machine began to lose function. 

That real-life incident, recounted by Indiana-based safety officer Tom Huser, MS, CHSP, in Environment of Care: A Compliance Guide to The Joint Commission's Managment Plans (HCPro, Inc., 2008), is preventable.

The first step, Huser says, is getting staff to understand their role in equipment maintenance. They need to:

 Recognize when a piece of medical equipment is not working properly
 Know which clinical interventions are appropriate to meet the needs of a patient (in the above example, acquisition and use of an ambu bag)
 Know whom to contact for a replacement device
 Understand how to label the malfunctioning piece of equipment

It's not only compliant under EC.6.10.8, says Huser; it'll save a life.

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