ELECTRIC SAFETY FOR ALLIED HEALTH
CARE PERSONNEL
By Rogelio Leyva Ochoa, Eng. M.S.
1. Potential difference
2. Electric current
The main purpose of this paper is to provide
knowledge to everyone related with medical
equipment
at
any
healthcare
3. Conductor
institution;
engineers and technicians who service medical
equipment, nurses, doctors, etc., but also
managers and others who takes financial
decisions in hospitals, e.g., if it is necessary to
improve the hospital ground system for any
reason, or to build a ground system for a new
5. Resistor
6. Ground system
7. Macro shock
7a. How to avoid macro shock
8. Micro shock
8a. How to avoid micro shock
facility, it is necessary that this personnel be
aware and sensitive about the hazard of not to
Potential difference.
have a reliable medical ground system installed.
That is why it is focused to the people who know
nothing about electricity, so it is not easy for
them to understand the basis for the electrical
safety and specifically the risk of not to follow
the electrical safety rules
regarding medical Fig 1
machines, we try to explain the subject in an
easy way to reach to everyone. Not in all the
countries the importance the electrical safety
rules is known by the technical personal
charge for
servicing
in
the medical equipment,
and even in countries that follow these safety
rules the doctors and paramedic personnel do Fig 2
not known or know a little about it.
Let’s start with the concept of potential
The scopes of the introductory topics difference. It can be appreciated in the slope
(potential difference, electric current, resistor, shown in figure 1 that there is a height of 10
conductor….)
in this paper do not go beyond meter on the top, and the height is 0 meter on
the elemental knowledge the readers need to the base, on account of the difference of height
understand the principal content of this article the gravity forces the ball on the top to roll down
“how to avoid macroshock and microshock.”
toward the base, so always the ball rolls from
Topics
the top to the base.