Hello everyone,
The issue of instruction manuals was discussed during a recent clinical
engineers meeting at our centre. It is my understanding that every (??)
piece of equipment that is provided to our clients, needs to be accompanied
by an instructions manual (or some kind of document providing the client
with all the information they need to know about that piece of kit).
There are a few examples of instruction manuals provided by the companies
themselves after an installation, hoewever their usefulness to the client
is debatable (I think that in most cases these manuals have been written
with field engineers in mind, not the end user).
With the ever increasing activity of in-house environmental control
services around the country, it would be fair to say that it has become our
responsibility in certain cases to educate our clients with regards the use
and "taking care" of these systems. Unfortunately, I don't feel that the
companies' own manuals would be appropriate to be used for this purpose.
The points I make above are obviously open to discussion and people may or
may not agree with what I am saying. However, the main question I would
like to ask this group is: If there is any validity in what you just read,
and considering the quality of the existing manuals (from the user's point
of view) would it be our responsibility to do something about it (maybe
compose some really simple, easy to follow instructions), or do we ask the
companies to do it.
Maybe this issue could be discussed during our next RESMaG meeting. In the
meantime, any comments are welcomed.
Chris Christoforides
Clinical Engineer
Access to Communication & Technology
Regional Rehab Centre
91 Oak Tree Lane
Selly Oak
Birmingham
B29 6JA
0121 627 8235
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