Cleaning Hacks for Portable Xray Machine – bottle wipe holders secured with magnets keep the equipment undamaged.
Way back in 2015, there were over 13,000 portable xray units in use around the United States.
The Coronavirus outbreak has brought acute awareness to cleaning our equipment, especially our portable x-ray machines.
This article was written to provide some quick tips on making the job of keeping your portables easier while keeping you safe.
PCXR is Frontline in Covid-19
When performing a portable chest xray on a suspected Covid-19 patient, the portable xray machine will have to into the patient’s room.
There have been rumors of facilities that are obtaining xrays THROUGH THE GLASS of the patients’ rooms. But I have yet to see the result or diagnostic quality of these images.
In the meantime, we have to keep entering the room and donning our PPE.
Utilizing the Clean Tech – Dirty Tech method helps reduce the risk of contamination. But you still have to clean the equipment.
So now is the time to hack your portable! Here are some ideas from different hospitals around the country.
Adding a Sani-Wipes holder
The drawer under the portable is not really designed to carry anything other than the detector plate.
So where do you keep the bottle of Covid-10 approved wipes to clean your machine between patients?
You can purchase a holder for your bottle of wipes from hardware stores on online here at Amazon.
You can also check with your equipment vendor to see if they have any left for purchase.
Now, you can’t drill into your tower and mount this holder like you would, say, in your garage.
But you can use strong magnets to keep it safe and secure on the tower.
Using magnets like these would work:
The canister holder was meant to be mounted to a wall but you can still mount it to the portable tower.
Use the given bracket and attach 4 magnets (2 stacked and bolted to the top of the canister holder and 2 stacked and bolted to the bottom).
This securely mounts to the tower of the portable and you will have disinfecting supplies where you need them when you need them.
You could also do this for glove holders if you wanted. You’ll want to ensure you get magnets with a hole pre-drilled through the middle.
Using a C-Arm Drape on Your Portable
C-arm drapes normally used to cover a c-arm during surgeries have been used for decades to help keep c-arms clean.
They can also be draped over the arm of the portable xray machine to keep it clean as well.
Due to costs, these are not the first line of defense. But depending on your current cleaning supply stock and frequency of use, these might be a good alternative when wipes get low.
What if you run out of approved wipes?
You can consider cleaning these drapes for reuse using a water/bleach solution with proper drying time. See our post on reusing N95 masks for ideas.
Think Outside the Box
Constant change is the one thing we can be certain of in our healthcare environment. You have to think outside of the box to come up with solutions on-the-fly.
You can’t always wait for the government or an adminstration team to solve your problems.
Keep safe out there and always practice proper precautions.
