Hospital and healthcare facility managers can do a lot behind the scenes to ensure patient safety. Ensuring proper maintenance of medical equipment, for one, is a vital component of their responsibilities.

Aim For Preventive Maintenance

One example of something that requires regular inspection is medical gas systems. Inspecting medical gas systems supports not only patient safety but cost-effectiveness and reduced risk too. Preventive maintenance, especially when it comes to medical gas, helps keep hospitals and healthcare facilities safe for patients, as well as prevent emergency repairs and equipment failures.

Routine inspections can help maintain your medical gas systems. Certified technicians can also confirm they are up to code. Some things they can check for include medical gas hoses. They can check medical hose fittings to see that the connection is secure and complete, enabling optimum flow and equipment functionality.

Look Into New Technologies

The global market for medical gas analyzers is expected to grow. Contributing factors to market growth include healthcare safety standard reforms, as well as a rising number of hospitals. Also, the rising prevalence of respiratory diseases, as well as the increasing demand for point-of-care diagnostics and home healthcare, are contributing to the medical gases and equipment market growth.

Between 2016 and 2024, electrochemical gas sensing technology, which dominated the market for medical gas analyzers worldwide, is expected to see the highest growth rate. New technologies for measuring gas, including paramagnetic and electrochemical, allow for faster and safer ways to measure medical gases.

Check Out FDA Guidelines

Hospital and healthcare facility managers should also strive to stay current on the latest guidelines for medical gases. The FDA issued a warning to hospitals, healthcare facilities and nursing homes in 2001 after medical gas mix-ups led to the deaths of seven patients. The agency noted that improper training was a common thread in the incidents, adding that adhering to a few simple safety procedures could have prevented the deaths.

Some of the FDA’s recommendations regarding medical gas include training all personnel who will be handling them to recognize the different labels. Another recommendation is storing industrial-grade and medical-grade products separate, for facilities that receive medical gas deliveries.

Medical gases, which are prescription drugs, are a vital component of healthcare facilities, and proper maintenance of medical gas systems is critical to a hospital’s success, productivity and profitability. Following such proper maintenance standards will help hospitals and healthcare facilities avoid delays and unnecessary risks.