Factoring in EMS Equipment Calibration Between Emergencies

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Working in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) means you’re always on call. Some days, you might go hours without hearing anything, while others it feels like you can’t catch a break.

In such an environment, how can you schedule things like regular maintenance and EMS equipment calibration? Who knows if an emergency will come up when you are in the middle of fixing your equipment? If that happens, could you drop everything to respond, or would the state of your tools put you out of commission?

Some EMS teams put off equipment calibration because of this exact scenario. Neglecting your tools can lead to compromised care and an inability to be sure about the quality of care.

Instead of leaving your equipment working up to fate, consider creating a calibration plan that works around your need to respond to emergency calls.

Why You Need Equipment Calibration

Not knowing the state of your EMS equipment leads to a host of problems that can land your response team in a lawsuit if you’re not careful. Other companies can lose business and profit if they don’t have proper asset tracking measures in place, but you could lose lives.

When answering an emergency call, you never know what you’re going to get. It could be a false alarm, it could be an elder who has fallen, or it could be a fatal accident. You can’t skate by with “the essentials” because you don’t know what you’ll need in any given situation. (see if you can find statistics or links out that can support this)

Regular equipment calibration means all of your tools will be ready to use at a moment’s notice. You won’t have to waste even a second trying to determine if something will work as you need. Your team’s maintenance duties will take care of that in less extreme circumstances.

Medical equipment has to follow specific legal requirements before items can treat patients. Failing to schedule equipment calibration means not meeting those requirements, which could get you in legal trouble.

Scheduling Calibration Times

Despite the irregularity of working in EMS, it’s still important to track your equipment and calibrate your tools. Keeping your assets calibrated at all times helps boost your team’s confidence in their ability to help patients.

The best way to avoid wasted time and organizational worries is to schedule calibration times regularly. However, because of the emergency nature of your job, it’s challenging to stick to this schedule.

Gather your team together and decide on a plan together. Several options will ensure your equipment meets medical standards and leaves you mobile enough to dispatch for emergencies.

What to do if an Emergency Comes Up During Those Times?

It can be tempting to hope that your team will have enough downtime to do equipment checks. Maybe some days, or even most days, they will. However, you never know when you’ll have a busy day, or a couple of days, that prevents you from maintaining your gear. 

One way of handling EMS equipment calibration is to assign someone who isn’t on call to deal with equipment calibration. You could have your team rotate out during scheduled times since they all use the equipment.

 Alternatively, if your team is big enough, you could hire someone to keep equipment calibrated and maintained at all times. 

Whatever solution you decide to go with, you need a robust EMS tool tracking system that can respond to changes as quickly as you do. 

Asset Panda’s mobile asset tracking solution can help you document issues as you encounter them. The platform is set up to notify managers so they can come up with solutions immediately. That way, you don’t have to go on calls knowing you’re without a piece of equipment that could prove vital in saving someone’s life. 

By:

Mel Van De Graaff

Mel creates research driven content for companies in the health and wellness field, and specializes in creating action driven blog posts for Mental Health and Self Help topics as well as creating white papers and case studies.

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