How often do you service autoclaves?
Q.I’m currently looking at what we pay out for things at the practice and looking at any possible savings to be made. I am confused about how often autoclaves have to be serviced. I hear different things from the company that carries them out to what other managers have said. I feel like a lot of companies out there want to get your business as often as possible.
Also, are pressure System vessels to be checked annually. I’ve also heard different things for that too!!
A.The HTM01-05 stipulates time frames for servicing and validating pressure vessels BUT the deciding factor is what is recommended by the manufacturer of the autoclave or compressor as this super-seeds the HTM01-05. We rent Burtons Autoclaves as their service is excellent and the company is just down the road from us. We have our machines serviced every 6 months and validated once a year. When we used to have SES machines we still had to have them serviced twice a year.
Both insurance companies that we have used (Towergate & Lloyd & Whyte) both require an inspection of our pressure vessels by a qualified, registered engineer and they charge a set amount for this to be carried out all within the cost of our insurance package. I have just renewed our insurance with Lloyd & Whyte and they have said this year because we have BDA Good Practice membership, Denplan Excel and have a validation certificate for the machines they will not require a site visit from an inspector. If you have these accreditations it may be worth asking your insurance company?
A.We should follow the guidelines stated in HTM01-05 and this states we should follow manufacturer's instructions.
From past experiences this is normally 2 services annually.
If autoclaves need upgrading it may be worth considering a lease option Prestige Medical offer a very good packages. (We found this very cost effective)
Pressure Vessel check Inspection Report should state when the next examination is required.
A.These questions are dependent on the recommendation for the manufactures guide for autoclave, we have ours done annually with full validation, but also have a service contract for any intermediate repairs.
The pressure vessels, include autoclaves and compressors, again I have our compressor checked annually, and every other year the compressor has also to be checked internally, again this is also dependent on the pressure vessel insurance you carry.
A.Eschmann used to do 3 a year for service, but have recently changed depending on cycle usage, which means for us twice a year BUT still charge us the same annual amount. I tried to get this reduced but to no avail L Our certification is every 14 months.
September 2015
