Corpuls leads, ECG paper and BM kits: your feedback to medical devices

As some of you are the ones using our equipment day in and day out, it’s really important that you keep talking to us about what’s working well, and what isn’t!

It’s also really important for you to report any issues with faulty equipment on Datix so we can investigate; in Datix, please complete to the asset/serial number field, as it helps the team to locate and identify the faulty device nice and quickly. Without the serial number, there’s a risk the device could accidentally be used or put back into service without being checked. Please also put the Datix report number on red faulty equipment tag.

We have a medical devices safety and management group that takes your feedback and talks about it in a central forum, as it helps us to pick up trends across the patch and to fix any problems quickly.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the issues you’ve fed back on in the last few months, and what the group is doing about them:

Corpuls leads: We had some feedback that the Corpuls leads are too short; the manufacturer’s view is that the leads are an adequate length as the unit can be separated if needed. But, our medical devices group will do a review to work out how long it thinks the leads ideally need to be, and then discuss with the manufacturer again. We’ll keep you posted.

Corpuls ECG paper: We’ve had a few Datix reports about the Corpuls ECG paper jamming in the printer. These are all investigated on an individual basis if it’s an issue with a specific unit, but a potential alternative product has been identified that we’re hoping to trial in a small area soon.

Blood monitoring (BM) kit error codes: We’re in the process of producing some guidance for the BM kit error codes, and we’ll be sharing this with you very soon here on Need to Know.

If you have any feedback you’d like to share about medical equipment we use, you can contact the medical devices team any time at clinicalengineeringteam@eastamb.nhs.uk.

If you’d like to remind yourself of the procedure for faulty devices, you can download a copy of the Medical Device DATIX Incidents standard operating procedure (SOP) here.

Published 13th April, 2017