Medical Equipment in Good Health
A leading medical technology company has equipped its service engineers with advanced new instrumentation designed to comply with the latest electromedical test standards.
Maquet, one of the world's leading suppliers of equipment for operating theatres and intensive care units, has taken delivery of new Rigel 288 electrical safety analysers for use by its field service engineers.
The innovative new Rigel 288 has been specifically designed to enable medical equipment service engineers to meet the in-service and post-repair test demands of the new IEC 62353 standard for in-service testing of Medical Devices.
The versatile handheld instrument utilises advance test technology to combine the functions of a medical safety analyser with a data logging asset management tool. A compact lightweight design and long life battery power reduces downtime between tests, making the instrument totally practical and highly portable for multi site use.
In addition, Bluetooth technology also enables the wireless connection of bar code scanners, label printers and other accessories - allowing totally cable-free testing and data transfer, without the cumbersome plugging and unplugging of leads and cords.
The Rigel 288s will be utilised by Maquet field service engineers to carry out routine test and inspection of a variety of electromedical equipment in hospitals throughout the UK.
Because the 288 allows both automatic and manual testing, the appropriate test specifications can be pre-configured in the safety analyser by senior engineers in advance of hospital visits. On site testing can then be carried out safely, speedily and efficiently by field engineers using direct bar code input of equipment ID and test parameters.
Among the medical equipment and applied parts regularly checked for electrical safety by Maquet engineers are surgical workplace equipment such as operating tables and lighting systems, ventilators and cardio pulmonary machines.
The Rigel 288's large internal memory facilitates the storage of test results for safety audit and traceability purposes. Test data can be stored for downloading to a PC or output on site via a dedicated print module.
Maquet engineers utilise this facility to print out test results immediately after testing has been completed, supplying hospitals with a complete electrical safety record of their equipment at the end of every visit.
Colin Moralee, Regulatory Affairs Manager for Maquet in the UK, said: "Maquet Service is committed to keeping all medical equipment operating optimally at all times during its entire life cycle. This is of paramount importance for patient safety and to prevent inconvenience for hospitals.
"The portability and versatility of the new Rigel 288 safety analysers is a real advantage for our service engineers who may otherwise have to be equipped with a number of different testers for different equipment and electrical safety tests.
"Initially the testers will be used by our critical care service team where the effective electrical safety testing of equipment such as ventilators and applied patient parts is crucial.
"However, the analysers will allow the failsafe testing of a wide range of different types of medical equipment by our engineering teams and will eventually be used by all service engineers as part of annual maintenance checks or testing after any repairs or modification of medical devices by EBME
departments."
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