Question

5. The hospital where you work is opening a new critical care wing. You are asked to verify the function of the air and oxygen outlets. How would you approach this task?

Answer 1

The first step in the process of verifying the function of air and oxygen outlets in critical care would be to list oxygen and types of air used and then list the types of outlets. The various types of air in a critical care setting includes oxygen, nitrous oxide, medical air, entonox, carbon dioxide, Medical vacuum, and heliox. The wall-mounted outlets present in critical care delivers the gases that come through the pipelines. When the air is supplied from a cylinder, it has a valve outlet and a safety outlet. In piped medical gas and vacuum (PMGV) system, gases are delivered from central supply points to different supply points. Oxygen, medical vacuum, nitrous oxide, and entonox are usually supplied through the pipeline system. Medical air fittings are yellow and will fit only medical air outlets.

Outlets should have bacteriostatic properties. Smaller 15 mm concealed pipelines serve as gas outlets. These are present as either flush fitting on walls or as an overhead boom or as suspended gang-mounted hoses. The color-coded terminal gas outlets are labeled with gas names and have self-sealing sockets. These shut down automatically for servicing the work of each unit but the large parts of the system do not shut down along with this. A quick-connect probe assembly should be present, which can be removed during servicing, but can’t be connected accidentally to a different gas outlet. Flexible color-coded hoses connect the outlets to the anesthetic machine. One end of the hoses has a Schraeder probe and the other end has a gas-specific threaded connector. The gas-specific valve uses a unique collar indexing system with a unique diameter that fits the matching recess on the terminal outlet for a particular gas only. Thermostatically-controlled regulators are used for nitrous oxide outlets.

These facts will be taken into consideration while checking for air and oxygen outlets in critical care. Each outlet will be checked for proper functioning with the utmost care and caution.