are activated. A facility I once managed had two or
three shared circuits in the OR. Randomly one day,
the blanket warmer, C-arm, surgical microscope
and other devices were all on the same circuit.
When staff activated the C-arm, the circuit blew.
Everyone thought it was a power
outage, and waited for the gener-
ator to kick in, but nothing came
on, so we had to race to the elec-
trical room to reset the circuit.
When we built our newest sur-
gery center, we included a dedi-
cated plug and circuit for the C-
arm, as well as a wall plug for
uploading images to our digital
integration system and ultimately
to the cloud. (C-arms can store a
limited number of images, so
check both storage space and digi-
tal integration capabilities.)
• Upkeep. Even if you have
your own X-ray techs, make sure
to designate a nurse or surgical
tech to be responsible for the
machine, the required training
and radiation safety education,
weekly testing and general
upkeep. Proper and consistent
maintenance will extend the
longevity of a C-arm.
A final point: If your C-arm goes
down, cases will grind to a halt. It might be a good
idea to purchase multiple units, so you'll always
have a back-up available.
OSM
Ms. Reiter (kreiter@discmdgroup.com) is CEO of DISC Surgery
Center in Newport Beach, Calif.
J
A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 5 9
Ziehm Imaging
Vision FD
ziehm.com
407-615-8560
Intended as a cost-effective, high-quality imaging
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detector or a 31cm x 31cm amorphous silicon
(aSi) flat panel detector. Its liquid cooling system,
paired with a 2.4kW pulsed monoblock genera-
tor, extends continuous use. Other characteris-
tics and features touted by Ziehm include low noise levels, clear magnifications and enhanced
dose management that provides high-quality images with minimized radiation doses.
