Engineering Insight

Service engineers at North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT; Harrogate, UK) are faced with the daunting task of confirming the safety of medical devices such as patient monitors, defibrillators and infusion devices located at more than 280 sites in a geographical area spanning approximately 3200 square miles. To simplify that task, the PCT purchased four portable Med-eKit devices from Rigel Medical (Peterlee, UK; www.rigelmedical.com). The investment has been well received by the Trust’s service engineers. The benefits may be applicable to industrial users, as well.

 

The Med-eKit can be used for rapid testing of the electrical safety and operation of a variety of medical devices and equipment. The kit includes several types of medical test equipment within a self-contained trolley, which engineers take with them as they travel to different sites.

 

Before investing in this system, the PCT contracted out testing work to five acute trusts and a number of OEM suppliers. Using the Med-eKit systems to perform testing instead has led to reduced costs and improved effiency, according to the Trust.

 

The Med-eKit system features hand-held analysers for electrical safety (Rigel 288), NIBP (Rigel BP-SIM) and SPO₂ (Rigel Oxy-Sim) simulators, a battery-operated patient simulator, defibrillator analyser, ventilator tester, printer and barcode scanner and asset management software. All of the elements are housed within a compact and lightweight wheeled Pelican trolley case.

 

“The portability of the Med-eKits is very good, making it easy for engineers to get the right equipment from the vehicles to the test site,” says Brian Jolly, General Manager of Medical Devices, ICES and Wheelchair Services for North Yorkshire and York Community and Mental Health Services. “The instruments themselves are also accurate, reliable and well designed,” he adds. “The fact that they all have the same keypad layout makes them easy to use.”

 

Foam inserts hold the instrumentation in place and provide protection during transport. The kit can be further customised to meet individual specifications with the inclusion of a laptop, multimeter, temperature meter and power analyser.

 

The Med-eKit is suitable for field service engineers requiring a flexible and accurate system for testing medical devices for functionality and electrical safety to manufacturer specifications or to a number of international standards and guidelines such as IEC 62353, IEC/EN60601-1, VDE 0751-1, AS/NZS 3551, AAMI, NFPA-99 and MDA DB 9801-2006.

 

Traceability is improved with the Rigel 288, as information can be downloaded into Med-eBase asset management software. This enables the user to store and manage test results, e-mail HTML test certificates to clients and schedule new work orders. All of that data can then be uploaded into the unit’s onboard memory.

 

The lightweight and battery-powered Rigel BP-Sim uses patented technology to simulate a range of blood pressures to verify the accuracy and safe operation of NIBP monitors currently used in healthcare and medical facilities.

 

The Oxy-Sim SPO₂ hand-held simulator features pulse volume adjustments, heart rate and manufacturer-specific R-curves, combined with large-capacity internal memory for the data capture, storage and downloading via Bluetooth of test results for record keeping.