Testing Anesthesia Equipment

Empower Your Staff and Save Money

Meet Rachael Crowley, a highly skilled and dedicated licensed veterinary technician with a specialization in anesthesia, who serves as a surgery technician at a prominent veterinary hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina

In 2022, Rachael, in collaboration with her office manager, Taylor, encountered a financial challenge: the steep expense of outsourcing anesthesia equipment servicing. This challenge led Rachael to a groundbreaking idea: “What if we took matters into our own hands and service and repaired our own anesthesia equipment? By doing so, we could invest the savings directly back into the operations and services of our hospital and empower the staff.”

Determined to turn this idea into reality, Rachael and her team started researching anesthesia equipment maintenance. They collected equipment manuals, watched YouTube videos, and researched best practices online. In 2023, they successfully transitioned to an in-house anesthesia equipment-servicing model. Part of the solution was purchasing a RIKEN FI-8000P Gas Indicator, an essential tool for anesthesia equipment maintenance, from A.M. Bickford Inc.  This initiative saved substantial resources, and demonstrated Rachael and her staff’s commitment to improvement and empowerment. 

As the Vice President at A.M. Bickford, I was intrigued by Rachael’s story and how the RIKEN FI-8000P* played a part in her planning.  She kindly sat down with me to share her story. Below are excerpts from that interview, as well as some recommendations if your hospital wants to start testing and servicing its own anesthesia equipment.

Tim: Can you tell me about your veterinary hospital?

Rachael: My hospital offers board-certified veterinary surgery and emergency services. We also offer ultrasound. We are in the process of moving into a new hospital. We hired our own architect and designed the building from the ground up. The layout is amazing!  Transitioning patients from one room to another will be easy and free flowing.

T: How many anesthesia machines and vaporizers are in your hospital?

R: We currently have 12 anesthesia machines and vaporizers, split between two manufacturers.

T: In your opinion, why do veterinary hospitals use equipment service companies?

R: It is convenient to have a trusted and honest company maintain equipment. Veterinary hospitals are extremely busy. Adding this to the list of day to day activities can overwhelm the hospital staff. Anesthesia machines and vaporizers appear to be intimidating. They are life and death machines. A trusted and honest service company can alleviate that stress, and take this responsibility off everyone’s plate. However, the hospital staff should know how each and every machine operates. They should ask questions about the repairs and service. 

T: Why did you start maintaining and servicing your own anesthesia equipment?

R: Most of the service providers we have used were great. The problem was the overall expense. I am not just talking about money, even though that was significant, but it is also time. We cannot wait a week for a service provider to fix our machine. My hospital cannot have a machine down. We need to keep our hospital running. I decided we needed to be more self-sufficient and understand our equipment better. I am that type of person. I like to understand how things work, take things apart and put them back together.

T: How much money was your hospital spending a year on service calls?

R: The cost of having equipment down is hard to calculate but in dollars, easily $2,600.00 a year for the anesthesia machines and vaporizers.

T: How did you get started servicing your own equipment?

R: This sounds boring, but we found and read all of our equipment manuals. The manuals provided the guidelines to create standard operating procedures. Then I took the equipment apart and put it back together again. This is the best way I learn; rolling up my sleeves and digging in. The final step was using Google and YouTube to find best practices and the tools needed. This is how I found the RIKEN FI-8000P.

T: Tell me about your experience using the RIKEN FI-8000P.

R: We use FI-8000P RIKEN to test our vaporizers anesthetic output.  It is very easy to use and set up! All the accessories are included with the purchase.  We test our vaporizers quarterly and document the readings. Since we started checking our vaporizers only one had to be exchanged.

T: How has the RIKEN FI-8000P improved your hospital?

R: The FI-8000P will pay for itself in a little over a year.  It has improved the staffs’ safety and our patients’. We know our patients are receiving the exact amount of anesthesia. It has improved our confidence because we know our equipment inside and out.  We feel empowered because we are taking ownership of maintaining our equipment. It is a great feeling. 

T: In your opinion, what size hospital should invest in a RIKEN FI-8000P?

R: If a hospital has four or more anesthesia machines and vaporizers, it is a piece of equipment that should be considered to purchase. It might pay for itself in a year.

T: How can a hospital start servicing and testing anesthesia equipment?

R: Let me say this first, this solution is not for every hospital.

First, you need to standardize your anesthesia equipment. Standardizing the equipment will improve overall productivity, speed up training times, reduce risk, and help with inventory costs. The hospital is also only working with one manufacturer. The hospital will function better.

Second, you need to collect information about your equipment. Read the equipment manual and take notes. The vaporizer manual will provide calibration testing information (liter per minute and if you need to use oxygen or air). YouTube will provide best practices videos. This is how I found out about the RIKEN FI-8000P.

Third, you have to create  Standard Operating Procedures. (SOPs**) SOPs are detailed, written instructions that guide veterinary staff on how to perform routine tasks. They ensure consistency, accountability, safety, and quality.  Finally, all testing procedures, especially the FI-8000P results, have to be documented. This should include date, time, model, serial number, carrier gas, liters per minute and FI-8000P results. 

Rachael’s story illustrates the benefits of taking ownership of their anesthesia equipment. She is now able to reinvest money back into her hospital, and her staff feels more confident around their anesthesia equipment. A big part of this this solution was the RIKEN FI-8000P. The RIKEN FI-8000P is a gas indicator that checks the anesthetic concentration of a vaporizer. It is an FDA approved device, and is used in both veterinary and human hospitals. If your hospital wants more information about the FI-8000P please contact A.M. Bickford.