Checking electric safety in patient care vicinity

Abstract

The servicing of medical devices includes inspec tion, maintenance, modification, upgrading and repair. Through management of these activities, clinical engineers ensure that medical devices are safe and effective for their intended purpose. The inspection and preventive maintenance of the electrical environment in hospital is a very important issue for the clinical enginery too. All of the devices that are used in the biomedical environment need of this kind of procedures. This paper describes how to design a procedure for inspection and maintenance of patient's electrical environment. The procedure shall include measures of current, voltage, electrical resistance and mechanical tests of all receptacles, grounding conductors, equipments, and their connections. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.