AN EVALUATION OF A TIME-SAVING ANESTHETIC MACHINE CHECKOUT PROCEDURE

Although it is generally acknowledged that a preuse checkout of the an aesthetic machine significantly improves patient safety, an evaluation of such procedures is uncommon. Previous studies have shown that anae sthetic personnel using different check routines are unable to detect the majority to pre-set technical malfunctions. We have shown that it is possible to develop an effective and time-saving check procedure by integrating seven simple steps into one continuous flow procedure, whe re the settings and results of one step are used in the following step to optimize step interaction. The method is a 'core' procedure adapte d to machines sold after 1980 according to the current ISO standard (p resently undergoing revision). A user inquiry demonstrated that this p re-use check has been easily adopted in departments of anaesthesia. Mo reover, the inquiry showed that most departments would not accept a ch eckout procedure which required more than 5-6 min. A study on nurse an aesthetists performing this procedure in the operating suite showed an average checking time of approximately 3 min. A performance test was undertaken by activating four different malfunctions in an anaesthetic machine training simulator. Twelve of 17 nurse anaesthetists rapidly identified all faults, whereas five nurses missed one or two faults. O ur study suggests that our check procedure (the seven point check) pro vides a time-saving method for effective pre-use control of the anaest hetic machine.