Medical gas testing companies specialize in medical gas distribution systems. As such, they are responsible for testing and certifying hospital and surgery medical gas equipment and distribution systems. This includes the testing and/or certifying of medical air and medical vacuum source equipment.
Medical air and vacuum source equipment are critical patient life support systems. They are built to certain specifications, codes and regulations mandated by governing agencies. These regulations are in place for public safety during hospitalization and surgery.
We see examples of inexperienced technicians performing incomplete or incorrect maintenance, service and repairs on medical air and vacuum systems. Tasks such as placing the wrong sensor in a monitor, incomplete or wrong wiring connections or entering the wrong settings. This causes alarms, system issues and nursing station chaos. Regulators, gauges, and safety valves get set wrong, causing turmoil within the system. Or putting the wrong oil in a pump and destroying it or starting a fire. Issues like these and many others happen way more often than they should.
A good example of botched maintenance is with dew point (case study) and carbon monoxide monitors. Both of these critical sensors are part of the medical air source equipment system. They are designed to monitor the medical quality of the air that will be administered to a patient. The dew point monitor also directly affects the cycling of the dryers, which helps to maintain dew point set points. Improper service and repair to these monitors can cause dangerous patient safety conditions. Moist air, particulate contamination or carbon monoxide downstream could cause serious injury to a patient, even death.
A medical gas testing technician may carry an ASSE 6040 credential. But he may not have the equipment knowledge necessary to service or repair a medical air or vacuum system. And he’s not going to get it from the ASSE 6000 series courses. See our blog post “What You Don’t Get from ASSE 6040 Training”. Also take a look at “Certification and Qualifications”. In these blogs we discuss the credentials a source equipment technician must have.
A testing company should not be maintaining the same equipment that they test. If they do, who is there to check their work and keep them honest?
Medical gas testing and source equipment specialists are separate entities. They are meant to work in tandem. This allows them to cross-check each other for patient safety. Each company performing the others work is a conflict of interest that could be detrimental to patient health and puts healthcare facilities in danger.
We are airandvac.com. We specialize in source equipment, specifically medical air and medical vacuum systems. We choose not to do medical gas testing. We feel strongly that having our worked double checked by certified testing experts keeps the customer and patients safe.
We are experts in the field of medical air and vacuum since 1977. We service and maintain equipment in some of the finest medical facilities on the West Coast including Alaska.
By the way . . . want to know how experienced we are? We also manufacture medical air and vacuum systems and sell them all over the world. Take a look at our website and get to know us a little better. Or contact us and let us put our 100+ years of combined experience to work for you.
