Maine Healthcare Engineers - Shared Wisdom

Emergency Generator Redundancy

2010-02-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

In regards to generator power, does anyone have a redundancy for their generator? If the existing unit failed or was out of service could you hook up a portable unit, an exterior connection?

Entrance Mats - How to Clean?

2010-02-20T05:56:00.001-08:00

I would like to get your thoughts about entrance mats. What is being used in
your entrances to combat the sand and salt mess that is brought in to your
facilities. How often are they cleaned? Any advice or thoughts shared would be
greatly appreciated.

Helicopter Pad

2009-12-13T05:08:00.000-08:00

We have a new helipad here at Parkview that we will need to maintain over the winter months. Ours is physically located within the ED parking area (set slightly above parking grade so that no one will park directly on the pad). Like many of you, we use salt exclusively for the treatment of roadways and parking areas. We have a concern that the salt itself may become a projectile hazard as helicopters land/takeoff. Question: What do you folks do to treat your helipad and any surrounding parking area? Does it need to be liquified salt (brine)? Do you treat the surrounding parking and roadways differently than the helipad?

Nurse Call System

2009-12-13T05:07:00.001-08:00

We are thinking about replacing our Nurse Call system. I would like to know what you have and how it is working for you if possible.Vendor contacts would be great as well.

Gas Cylinder Pads - rust ring on floor issue

2009-12-13T05:04:00.000-08:00

We have several gas cylinders stored on tile floors that are approximately 52" tall and 9" diameter with large collars that keep them from tipping. Unfortunately, the tanks tend to leave rust rings on the floor. Our gas company says that there really is nothing designed to place the tanks on. Have any of you experienced this and have devised some ingenious way of resolving this issue? Please let me know. We have some FRP board that would work as a giant coaster but I hate to "Mickey Mouse" this if there's a better idea.

Medical Laser Safety Officer

2009-12-13T04:59:00.001-08:00

In healthcare organizations, who typically is the Medical Laser Safety Officer ?

Is this the Biomed Technician?
Nursing?
Other?

My sense is that this is a Nursing Function. Thanks

Fire Extinguishers in Operating Rooms

2009-06-01T10:37:00.001-07:00

...was recently surveyed by the Joint Commission. It was recommended, by the survey team, that we add CO2 fire extinguishers in the OR rooms. It was explained to us that CO2 extinguishers were safe to use in the OR rooms during surgery. Is this is a code requirement or just a recommendation? Also, what do the other facilities use in the OR suites and rooms?

Main and branch electrical circuit breaker testing

2009-04-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

Would you be so kind as to forward this question to our membership.
1) Does anyone have an annual or any routine program for Main andBranch electrical breaker testing.
2) If yes how often and down to what breaker size do you test.
3) Does anyone have a program that includes anything more then visualor thermal imaging inspections.
Reason for asking, I recently read where a hospital was cited underImmediate Threat to Life and automatic Preliminary Denial ofAccreditation; for not testing it's main breakers. This is not somethingwe have done in the past and will be implementing starting this year.

FTE calculations for budgeting purposes

2008-12-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

Do any of the Hospital’s in Maine use gross square footage of their facilities to benchmark their FTE (full-time employee) calculations for budgeting purposes? York Hospital has historically utilized adjusted patient days for all FTE budgetary staffing calculations (clinical and non-clinical) which is not very effective for Environmental Services staff (Engineering, Maintenance, Housekeeping, Biomed and Security), particularly given the growth of our facility in recent years. If any facility managers are using an alternate means to benchmark or assess appropriate staffing levels, I’d be interested in talking with them about their organization’s methodology.

Work Management Software

2008-12-01T04:43:00.000-08:00

What do you use for work management software and would you recommend it?

Generator Redundancy

2008-08-29T11:51:00.001-07:00

Re: Generator Survey

I am trying to ascertain the range of generator coverage you all have? Until we added a new ED, we have been fortunate enough to be able to:

Power 100% of the hospital with generator power (fairly nusual I suspect?)

We have 2 - 750KVA generators, 1- can carry the load with a medium A/C load, therefore we essentially have redundancy, should one of them fail for any reason. With a heavy A/C load, we'd have to shed 1 or more transfer switches depending on the load.

When we added 36,000 sf for the new ED and education/admin addition, the wisdom of the engineers was to put this addition on a new, single, separate 550KVA generator, w/o a transfer switch back to our 2 original generators, therefore, should it fail, the ED has only Life Safety (lighting only), (we fed life safety back to to the original generators, just in case of
failure.)

Here's my issue: I suspect we are all over the board on generator coverage ability, as well as redundancy? Therefore I need to know if my belt and suspenders concern is shared among you in your own shops. This new ED generator has failed to start 2x in test since February, therefore, I want to install a transfer switch to be able to power the ED, should the new ED generator fail (+/- $75,000 job). Can you answer the following questions, while identifying your hopsital for me?

1. What %, or level of coverage can your generator/s provide?

2. Do you have more than 1 generator?

3. If you have more than 1, can it pick up the load should the primary fail (how much redundancy capacity)?

4. Hospital Name:

Other comments are appreciated.!

Petroleum based lubricants on patients using oxygen

2008-07-31T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here’s a little piece of information I requested from Greg Day in response to a question I got from my Respiratory Department. The question was,” What reg do I show nursing to get them to stop using ?”. I just thought someone else might be able to use this someday.

Extension-cords and receptacles in surgical suites

2008-07-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

As I read the NEC, extension cord sets: "..shall be permitted during the period of construction, remodeling, maintenance, repair, or demolition..." "...not to exceed 90 days for holiday decorative lighting and similar purpose." " during emergencies and for tests, experiments and for developmental work." and "... shall not be used as a substitiute for the fixed wiring of a structure.." (NEC 70-590.3 & 400.8). There also needs to be a "..written assured equipmpent grounding conductor program continuously enforced...to ensure that equipment grounding conductors for all cord sets....are installed and maintained.." (NEC 70-590.6)

So given all that (and any other requirement I may not have stated), just what is acceptable and SOP for the needs in the surgical suites? These suites are large with receptacles on the walls plus an overhead reel at the head end of the table for anesthesia. Seve

Alcohol hand gel in OR?

2008-07-16T12:00:00.001-07:00

Do you have/allow alcohol hand gel in your operating room?

Ambulance Transported Equipment - Need bio-med check?

2008-07-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

When a piece of patient care equipment is used in an ambulance transport of the patient, does the equipment used on the patient have to be checked out by the bio-med before being put back into service? The equipment left our site, went to a different hospital and then transported back to our hospital. My understanding is once it leaves us we have to have it checked out before returning it to service.

Asbestos Floor Tile Removal

2008-07-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Can anyone enlighten me on the Maine DEP’s minimum abatement requirements for the removal of asbestos floor tile? The Hospital has some small offices in which we’re replacing carpeting, under which there are old asbestos tiles. We typically have had an abatement contractor remove all of the asbestos tile from these types of projects in the past; however, if most of the tiles are sound, and a just a few are loose or damaged, does the state allow removal of those tiles without going through the notification process and using a licensed abatement contractor to conduct the removal?