Defibrillator devices at a public sector hospital in Gauteng

Abstract

Objectives: This was a prospective, clinical audit of all the external defibrillator devices (EDD) found at a public sector hospital in Gauteng. Methods: The study was conducted at all sites within the hospital where the manual external defibrillator (MED) or automated external defibrillator (AED) was present and ready for clinical use. Results: EDD were assessed in 112 out of a total 123 areas in the hospital. The entire hospital had a total of 143 EDD’s (97.2% n=139 MED, 2.8% n=4 AED. There were 52 EDD’s in the general wards (21 medical, 15 surgical, 7 paediatric, 9 obstetrics and gynaecology wards), 27 in the high dependency areas (19 intensive care areas, 8 emergency departments), 35 in non-sleep over areas (27 outpatients departments, 3 allied health areas, 5 radiology areas) and 25 in the theatre complex (23 in theatre rooms, 2 peri-op areas). Daily checklist books were available in 101 of 139 (72.7%) of MED’s across the hospital with a statistical significance with regards to the presence of the checkbook and the location of the MED (p=0.00313). Of the MED with a checklist book, 25.7% (n=26) had documented checks being conducted at least once (am or pm check) daily over a 5 day period. The maintenance stamps were present in 59.7% (n83) of MED’s with a statistically significant difference with regards to the location of the MED and the presence of the maintenance stamp (p<0.00001). Seven MED and one AED were found to have a critical problem. Conclusions: The results of our study indicate that emphasis is needed on EDD checking and maintenance. Although 95% of the MED’s were fully functional, the v

consumables that were used to support the devices were inconsistently present throughout the hospital.