Day 8: Diving into Week 2

We have dived into our second work week at Roosevelt ready to start checking things off a pretty hefty to-do list. A new member, Huy Lam, has also just arrived and will be joining us for the remaining part of our trip.  Huy is the president of WashU's Engineering World Health (EWH), a national organization that designs engineering solutions to global health problems that are more inexpensive and accessible. He's here with a goal to gain experience by shadowing physicians and making detailed observations to help innovate better products for hospitals such as Roosevelt. We're excited to have him here and teach him about the hospital system.

 

    Our time at the hospital today started like the others, working on the ventilators. We now have manuals for the Viasys Vela vents (Thanks Margarita!) and, halfway through the day received a manual for the Hamilton medical vents from a respiratory therapist as well. Finally having manuals is a huge relief and gave us some hope into repairing some vents we had previously largely labeled as a lost cause.  As soon as we started taking apart some vents, literally getting our hands dirty, the head nurse of the ICU, Sylvia, stopped by. Sylvia is a great resource to us. She entered the ICU with her arms full of a defibrillator nearly as large as she is and upon setting in down opened a new room stocked top to bottom of broken equipment (particularly patient monitor displays, a few pulse oximeters, computer screens, operating lamps, power cords, stools and boxes that we haven't even started looking through). She takes extra time to ensure that we understand exactly what she is saying and actually moved into the new ICU to do her paperwork today in case we had any questions for her about equipment history and usage. This kind of care and attention is indicative of the kind of treatment that the patients receive, and is part of the reason why working at Roosevelt is so rewarding and enjoyable for us. 

Some of the new, broken equipment found in the closet

            Unfortunately the issue with the defibrillator is solely one broken part.  On one hand, it is an easy fix; on the other, we don't have the part required, so there is not much we can do besides looking into ordering it.  Another thing we learned is that fixing up these machines doesn't necessarily have to be complicated.  With one of the pulse oximeters, which had spent a couple years in the room of broken equipment, it was simply a matter of securing the power cord and input cable, which had worn down and come loose over the years.  We will be noting instances like this in the trouble shooting guide we are writing for the staff, to ensure the communication of simple fixes like this for the future.

    ​We are also excited to begin the cataloging of the equipment in the ICU.  Byron, one of the 3rd year residents, told us that he can show us around tomorrow morning so that we can start making the database. In addition to that, we have a meeting planned with the UVG students to further discuss the partnership with WashU. All in all, we are happy with our progress today and very much looking forward to a busy day tomorrow.