Archive for August, 2009

Five Essential Pieces of Medical Equipment

While medical equipment is advancing at lightning speed these days, some of the most common machines and monitors are still in use today.  Here is a summary of the five most enduring pieces of medical equipment and how they are used today.

Defibrillators

These lifesaving machines can be found in almost every medical center and hospital room today.  Known for their ability to revive patients during periods of cardiac arrest, defibrillators are an invaluable piece of medical equipment.  They are even a part of most emergency first-aid kits, and can be found in may public places.

Patient Monitors

An essential tool for any operating room, patient monitors record and interpret vital signs while a patient is undergoing treatment or surgery.  A vital piece of medical equipment like this can alert doctors and nurses of any changes in a patient’s condition before they become physically apparent.

X-ray Machines

It has taken many years to perfect the x-ray machine into what it is today.  Originally, these machines were very cumbersome and dangerous, but today they are quite safe.  X-ray machines are an invaluable component of a hospital’s medical equipment, as they allow doctors to diagnose illnesses, detect broken bones, or find foreign objects inside the body.

EKG Machine

Perhaps one of the most important pieces of medical equipment for any hospital is the EKG machine.  This machine can detect any abnormalities in the heart by measuring the electrical signals emitted by the movement of the heart muscle.

Ultrasound Machines

Just like the X-ray machine, ultrasound equipment is an important diagnostic tool for any medical facility.  By using sonar technology, ultrasound can map the body’s interior organs by bouncing high-pitched sound waves off of internal structures and producing a visual image from these signals.

While all of these machines have been perfected over time, many hospitals are still using less modern versions of them effectively.  Most medical practitioners could not function without some access to these important pieces of medical equipment.

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Used Medical Equipment Dealers Offer Win-Win for Patients and Providers

With insurance companies cutting back on their approval of extended hospital stays, many outbound patients find they need to bring in their own medical equipment.  This can be a costly endeavor for anyone, but it is especially burdensome for senior citizens living on fixed incomes.  These patients are best served by used medical equipment, which is far less expensive than purchasing a brand new machine.  In this sluggish economy, with so many people lacking adequate health insurance coverage, buying used medical equipment is an ideal option.

Medical equipment, such as power wheelchairs, EKG machines and blood analyzers are designed to improve the health and overall quality of life for homebound patients.  If you are looking to purchase reconditioned medical equipment, a number of online resellers can help.  For those patients without insurance or the means to pay for new equipment, reconditioned equipment is a sensible alternative.

Because medical equipment is so quickly advancing, and some machines become outdated before their usefulness expires, many medical facilities find they need to upgrade their equipment more often.  By selling it to a used medical equipment reseller, they can better afford the new equipment they need.  This presents a win-win situation for medical centers and homebound patients who need to buy medical equipment.

Most used medical equipment dealers have a wide array of machines for use in the home.  These can include multi-function hospital beds, monitoring equipment, power chairs, IV equipment, EKG machines, blood pressure monitors, blood analyzers and more.

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Robotic nurses? What next? The Hospital of the Future is here

Picture this: you are recovering from a high-risk surgery and are still feeling groggy from the anesthesia, while you awake in the intensive-care unit. Just when you think you’re regaining consciousness, a 5-foot robot stops in for a visit. Are you dreaming? Did you sleep straight through to the 22nd century? No, and no, you are not dreaming and this is really happening. A remote “robot nurse” can be piloted remotely by a doctor who sits at a command center on another floor.

Alien-like robots, with computer monitors on top, can be deployed to do a nurse’s “rounds”, checking in on patients, reading vital signs, and reporting back to the command center in real-time. Not only is this a hospital cost-cutting measure, robotic medical equipment can do its “job” without unsettling or disturbing seriously ill patients.

Robots aren’t just appearing in a nursing role either. Surgeons are increasingly using robots to perform operations, steering the robot’s movements with a mouse, rather than handling the scalpel themselves.

Robotic medical equipment isn’t the only way technology is creeping into patient care. They are just one of many advances in how hospitals function. Patients will also notice radio-frequency ID tags that track the movement of every doctor, nurse and piece of medical equipment in the hospital, enabling a faster emergency room response. “Smart beds” transmit patients’ heart rate and breathing directly to their charts, enabling nurses to respond to problems faster. And we all know it won’t be long before any doctor, no matter where you are, will have access to your complete medical history through an identifier chip, implanted under the skin.

According to industry analysts, spending on telemedicine, which includes everything from remote monitors to advanced communications systems on medical equipment, will reach $2.4 billion this year and will nearly triple by 2012. Hospitals are making these unprecedented investments to accomplish two goals: slashing error rates (and their risk-related insurance costs) through improved clinical care, and reduce patient stress, which encourages healing. Both of these goals, once met, are expected to cut costs over the long term.

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