Tips for Proper Maintenance of Your Anesthesia Equipment in Lubbock, TX

The anesthesia machine is one of the most important pieces of equipment you have in your hospital or clinic. Therefore, it’s important you do everything you can to keep it working correctly so you can regularly induce safe, reliable sedation and eliminate the pain and suffering of your patients.

There are several steps you can take to ensure proper maintenance of your anesthesia equipment in Lubbock, TX. The two most important things are to regularly check for leaks and to engage in annual maintenance.

Leak checks

Leaks in your anesthesia system can cost you a lot of money in wasted agents. Fortunately, checking for leaks should only take you a couple of minutes. We strongly recommend you perform the following steps every single day. You’ll need an oxygen supply of at least 40 to 60 psi, plus a breathing circuit and bag, and then you can begin the leak test.

1. Connect the patient circuit to the fresh gas outlet on the anesthesia machine.
2. Use your thumb or some sort of plug to obstruct the circuit outlet.
3. Open up the oxygen flowmeter to about 200 ml.
4. Close the gas evacuation valve.
5. Hold down the oxygen flush button until you see the manometer reach about 30 cm H2O pressure.
6. Release that flush valve and then analyze the manometer. You should not see pressure fall for at least 10 seconds. If the pressure does fall before then, you have a leak in your system and you’ll need to identify its source and replace the part that is leaking.
7. Release the pressure and open up the gas evacuation valve. If you did see a leak, you’ll be able to use the process of elimination to find the source, replacing one part at a time until you find the leaking area. The most common culprits are the bag, the patient circuit and the fresh gas outlet o-ring. Make sure to throw away the leaking part.

Annual maintenance

Aside from the daily tasks like cleaning and leak checks, there are annual maintenance tasks you’ll want to prioritize as well. It can help to have a relationship with a service professional who can come in and handle these tasks for you, allowing you to focus on your work.

There are parts on anesthesia machines that will wear out over time, including seals, gaskets and rings. The frequency with which they need to be replaced will depend on the kind of unit you have and how much use it gets.

If you hire a technician, he or she will take the machine apart and put it back together to ensure proper calibration and that all pieces are in good working order. Calibrating your equipment is important to ensure the best anesthesia results.

This is just a little bit of information about how you can keep your anesthesia equipment in good shape. Contact the team at Stat Biomedical Inc. today to learn more, or to begin exploring anesthesia equipment sales in Lubbock, TX.

Categorised in: Anesthesia Equipment

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