ELECTRICAL SAFETY – PATIENT SECURITY

glosary: Electrical safety, live wire, Neutral, Earthing system, leakage.

Electrically powered equipment can pose a significant hazard to workers, particularly when mishandled or not maintained.  Many electrical devices have high voltage or high power requirements, carrying even more risk.

What is Electrical Risk?

• Electrical shock by contact with voltage elements (direct electrical contact), or with masses accidentally placed in tension (indirect electrical contact).
  

• Electric shock or electric arc burns.

• Falls or blows as a result of shock or electric arc.

• Fires or explosions caused by electricity.

An electrical contact is the action of closing an electrical circuit by joining two elements. There may be two types of contacts.

It is called direct electrical contact to the contact of persons or animals with active conductors of an electrical installation. An indirect electrical contact is a contact of persons or animals accidentally placed in tension or a contact with any active part through a conductive medium.

Most frequent injuries from electricity

Neutral line and earth identification

wire using a tester screwdriver, a multimeter.

With the help of a tester it is identified which is the line, the tester lights up when the circuit closes with the finger

With a multimeter we can do the same test by adjusting the multimeter in AC and closing the circuit with the finger you see a voltage measurement

Do not forget that to perform any measurement you must REMOVE ALL ELEMENTS OF METAL as are earrings and necklaces also collected the hair and not be wet

Also it can be identified by means of the use of a multimeter where the terminals Earth-phase, phase-neutral and neutral-earth are measured, according to the thrown value each electrical line is established

Earth -neutral measurement

Live-Neutral measurement

Earth - Live measurement

Conclusiones

1. You must have the patient's isolation in each medical equipment since the electrical system can have some failure and generate irreversible damage to the patient

2. It is necessary to check the electric lines periodically in order to avoid leakage currents and damage to medical equipment

3. At the time of handling the medical equipment it should be considered the classification of such equipment as Class I Class II or Class III using the necessary protective equipment avoiding risks for the operator