Identification of isolated machines

[Chris Bates]

How does everybody out there identify isloated machines.

We, like some other places, use coloured tape around the screen and on the drip pole.  Red, Blue, Yellow and Black for various BBVs, holiday returnees and unknown serology. We also fit a colour coded padlock to the drip pole for which only the techs have keys, so only we can de-isolate a machine.
However infection control are not happy with the tape - which can look bad, peeling off and dangling, when not applied with care (techs generally do not do the isolation - just the de-isolation).
The tape and padlocks seemed like a reasonable solution for many years, as it could be applied to all types of machine.

What do you use ?

Regards
Chris

[Garry]

We use coloured adhesive tape labels with 'Single patient use' printed in them.  In addition we have  laminated, coloured A4 sheets labelled up with patient number, disinfection date and a further message to highlight single use status of equipment.  These are cable tied to the drip stand.  We use this method for general isolation equipment, holiday returns etc.  

For long term isolation such as Hep B various panels of the equipment are sprayed an appropriated colour.  If need be these panels can be transferred to another machine (by the techs) if the original develops any issues that can't be resolved promptly.

[Ian Wilde]

Any pictures to post gents?

[Gareth Murcutt]

Here's a picture of one of ours. The tape on the screen is meant to remind staff and the tube on the drip pole cant be removed accidently.

[Ian Wilde]

This is our Hep B machine:



This is a machine designated for use with someone with an unknown virology:

[Gareth Murcutt]

Interesting. We felt that putting patients name on machine would be a breach of confidentiality.Also we didn't want to effectively label the machine as UNCLEAN .

[Ian Wilde]

Hi Gareth,

These isolated machines are only used in our isolation rooms so no one other than the patient ever sees the sign - apart from staff obviously.  We have more isolated patients than rooms so they are moved around and swapped between our machine holding area and the iso rooms.  Our machine holding area doesn't have public access.

Ian

[Gareth Murcutt]

Understood Ian. We only isolate for cohorts rather than individuals, thus ID not relevant to us.

[Garry]

Hi Gareth, what cohorts do you have in place?  

We have a few machines set up for known BBV status cohorts though it's the 'awaiting results' groups that give us the biggest headache.  As an example we currently have 10 machines isolated, mainly from high risk holiday areas, covering a unit of 30 stations.

I'm sort of hoping someone out there cohorts these groups of patients and, with some robust risk assessment/evidence, it could be introduced here while remaining within guidelines.  Possibly a non starter but thought I'd ask!

[Gareth Murcutt]

Best to email me and we can discuss.

[Chris Bates]

Further to my original question, we can't use tape any more - infection control didn't like it when it started to peel and look tatty.

So the latest version required a lot of time in my shed cutting plastic rods to length - see photos.
We are closing one hook on each machines drip pole to attach coloured rods with coloured padlocks and stainless steel cable. We need padlocks as we had an incident a couple of years ago with staff taking off tape and coloured sheets and using the machine on non-isolated patients without the techs de-isolating.