How to Properly Maintain Your Ultrasound Machine

Maintaining your ultrasound machine is vital for continued and accurate use in patient diagnostic testing. Because the ultrasound equipment is necessary for a smoothly functioning medical lab, the care, prevention and maintenance of the machine should be strictly followed on a routine basis.  Failure to adhere to care, prevention and maintenance is one of the most common causes for faulty medical equipment.

Instructions:

1. Schedule preventive machine maintenance and cleaning by a service representative on a quarterly basis.
2. Check the ultrasound equipment daily. Make sure that all of the connections are plugged in properly. Look carefully at the integrity of the wiring, cables and transducers. Swap cut or frayed areas with backup supplies immediately.
3. Wipe down the transducers and patient physiology cables--cables that monitor the heart rate and vital signs--after each patient exam, using an ultrasound cleaner. Follow any rigid cleaning protocols, such as sterilization for certain types of transducers used for specific procedures.
4. Wipe down the machine thoroughly at the end of each shift and write down any glitches and/or problems that you may have noticed during any of the exams done during your shift. Report significant problems to the service representative right away.

Extra Tip/Warning

• Tip - The majority of health-care facilities and practices purchase their maintenance agreements from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). An OEM maintenance agreement is considered the safest, albeit the most expensive, option, as the manufacturers are familiar with their machines. There are other 3'rd party vendors though with excellent maintenance agreements so do some research.
• Warning - Large medical facilities sometimes do not invest in maintenance agreements; instead, they have their internal engineering departments handle maintenance of the ultrasound machines. The engineers are often given ultrasound-machine training to do preventive maintenance and handle basic problems.  However, if costly problems arise there may be some issues without a maintenance agreement.  Also, without a maintenance agreement, the facility also usually doesn't have the latest upgrades and other benefits available to them.

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