What Does "Medical Grade" Mean?

What Does “Medical Grade” Mean?

You may see the term “Medical Grade” floated along by many manufacturers these days in your search for proper medical equipment. Everyone, from dentist chair manufacturers to medical grade computer manufacturers, lays claim to the term, implying that their product meets the true definition. While there is no central body that organizes the term “Medical Grade” and assigns it accordingly, there are some key elements that hospital supply buyers should look out for in their medical purchases. Most notably, the term “Medical Grade” when applied to computers should be scrutinized. Your Medical Grade Computer purchases should meet the following criteria:

 

UL60601 Certified

It almost goes without saying that any medical computers you purchases should be UL60601 Certified, but it is still worth mentioning. Among other things, this certification ensures that any Medical Grade Computers purchased by your hospital meet safety standards set by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC has set these guidelines to ensure that electrical equipment, such as medical grade computers, does not interfere with other medical technology used in proximity to it.

 

Medical Grade Computers Should Be Antimicrobial

Aside from UL60601 certification, ensuring that every medical grade computer purchased for your hospital is antimicrobial is the most important aspect to the meaning of being medical grade. Antimicrobial medical grade computers feature an antimicrobial coating. This coating makes the medical grade computer impervious to bacteria and other pathogens, mitigating their growth on its surfaces. When a medical grade computer features antimicrobial properties, it is as if the medical grade computer is constantly sanitizing itself with antibacterial wipes. This feature is an absolute necessity in a time where hospital acquired infections are so prevalent.

 

Backup Battery Enabled

Hospitals are facilities designed to treat both common colds and emergencies. When the latter happens, the equipment your hospital uses will need to be depended upon. Ensuring that the medical grade computers your hospital relies on can, in fact, be relied on is key to preventing potentially dangerous conditions for your patients. Medical grade computers with either hot-swap battery technology or uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) prevent your hospital’s computer network from going out when the power does.

 

Medical Grade: Tangent Meets The Mark

“Medical Grade” is so much more than a term, it’s a commitment. Tangent has pioneered this commitment and designed medical grade computers that constantly push the idea of “Medical Grade” further and further. Each one of Tangent’s numerous Medical Grade Computers meets or exceeds the standards listed above. It is this commitment to the Medical Grade that makes Tangent the top innovator of medical grade computer technology.

Around the clock urgent in the hospital demands medical grade pcs for 24/7 use

Medical All-In-One PCs for 24/7 Use

As one of the most trusted public services, healthcare facilities have an obligation to serve those in their community. Health emergencies can happen at any time, and as such hospitals are expected to be open 24/7. While medical staff can be shifted so that the hospital is constantly staffed and prepared for emergencies, the same cannot be said about the equipment they employ. Ensuring that your hospital has technology capable of being used on a 24/7 basis is crucial to providing quality healthcare to those in your community.

How To Keep Your Medical Carts Running 24/7

Medical carts with medical computers are one of the most important facets of any hospital. Medical carts with medical computers are capable of turning a stationary piece of medical equipment into a mobile workstation for use in multiple rooms of a hospital. However, medical carts with medical computers have one downfall: they need to be decommissioned regularly for charging. Medical carts can spend hours every day plugged into the wall instead of helping patients. But it doesn’t have to be this way. With medical computers from Tangent, your medical carts can operate on a 24/7 basis. Medical computers like the E24B from Tangent utilize hot-swap battery technology. While one battery is in use, two others can be charging. When the in-use battery gets low, simply insert another battery into one of the other two battery ports and the medical computer is completely recharge, all without being turned off!

Medix E24B From Tangent
                   Medix E24B From Tangent

Medical All-In-One PCs

Another way to ensure your facility’s medical computers are able to operate 24/7 is to make sure they are medical all-in-one PCs. Medical all-on-one PCs are medical grade computers where the entire computer contained behind their touchscreen. That means that medical all-in-one PCs like the Medix C19 from Tangent do not require mice or keyboards to operate. In addition, medical all-in-one PCs have the least amount of moving parts possible, driving down the amount of maintenance necessary substantially. Medical all-in-one PCs also can feature hot-swap battery technology, allowing them to be moved from one room to another without being unplugged and turned off. In an emergency, medical all-in-one PCs can also make use of their UPS battery backups to ensure that life-saving care can continue even without external power.

Medix C19 From Tangent
           Medix C19 From Tangent

24/7 U.S. Based Technical Support for Medical All-In-One PCs

Just like how your hospital operates 24/7, Tangent’s U.S. based technical support team is available 24/7. Tangent’s trained technical support operatives are knowledgeable about all tangent medical computer and medical all-in-one PC products. With remote assist tools, advance exchange services, and image pre-loading, Tangent’s U.S. based technical support team will find a solution to your issue. 

Medical Computers From Tangent: Built For 24/7 Use

Hospitals are designed to run around the clock, and the computers they employ should be too. Medical computers from Tangent are built to be used 24/7, ensuring your hospital provides the quality care your patients depend on, day and night.

 

Medical Grade Computers For Operating Room Use

Fanless Medical Computers For Operating Room Use

Of the 27 million surgeries performed every year in the United States, 5% result in a Surgical site infection (SSI). A SSI is labeled as such when an infection occurs within 30 days of surgery or within one year of a foreign object being implanted in the body. While this number may seem low, the 5% amounts to 1.35 million SSIs per year. These infections can cause serious detriment to patients, longer hospitals stays, and even drastic healthcare costs to the hospital treating said patient. Reducing the amount of SSIs in your hospital can lead to decreased costs, fewer repeat patients, and a healthier workplace.

 

 

How To Reduce Surgical Site Infections In The Hospital

While it is nearly impossible to create a perfectly sterile environment to perform surgeries in, there are promising remedies that can help reduce the amount of SSI causing bacteria in the operating room. One remedy is the use of fanless medical computers. Fanless medical computers are medical computers that do not feature fan-based cooling systems. Instead, they employ passive cooling systems that work just as good, if not better than, fan-based cooling systems.

 

The main benefit of fanless medical computers is that since they do not require outside air be brought in as a coolant, they can have fully enclosed casings. This means that most fanless medical computers are water resistant in addition to being fanless. It also means that no there is no dust build up in the medical computer. This is important because dust buildup in medical computers can lead to the creation of bacteria breeding grounds. We all know that bacteria love warm places, and what better place for bacteria to thrive than in the heatsink of a fan constantly circulating warm air and organic dust particles. Fanless medical computers completely eliminate this festering possibility, leading to a much safer and cleaner medical computer.

 

 

Fanless Medical Computers Are Antimicrobial

 

In addition to being rid of a breeding ground for bacteria, fanless medical computers from Tangent are antimicrobial computers. The touchscreen of every Tangent fanless medical computer features an antimicrobial coating with mitigates the growth of bacteria on its surface. So in addition to not creating a breeding ground for bacteria, fanless medical computers also eliminate any bacteria growth on their surfaces. This one-two punch makes fanless medical computers the perfect medical computers for operating room use, as they can drastically reduce the bacteria present in the room and reduce the likelihood of a SSI from occurring.

 

 

Fanless Medical Computers: Perfect For The Operating Room

Every year, 1.35 million SSIs occur. These SSIs are not only a detriment to the wellbeing of the afflicted patient, but to the hospital serving them. Fanless medical grade computers from Tangent can help reduce the likelihood of these infections from every occurring, saving hospitals time and money and saving patients from further suffering.

Medical Grade Computers For Emergency Room Use

Medical Computers For Emergency Room Use

In 2016, U.S. emergency rooms treated 145.6 million Americans for their emergency conditions according to the Center for Disease Control. This number has been steadily rising since the 1990s, and can be expected to continue increasing with each passing year. With such a high demand for emergency services, it is important to keep your hospital’s emergency room as up to date as possible. With the latest medical computers at your physician’s side, emergency room wait times can drastically decrease and patients can get the life-saving care they need.

Medix E22B | E24B

E22B and E24B from Tangent: built for emergency room use
E22B and E24B from Tangent: built for emergency room use

The Medix line of medical computers from Tangent are some of the most valuable assets that an emergency room can contain. With a wide touchscreen, busy emergency room personnel can quickly input a patient’s data and get right to helping them. Unlike other computers, the Medix E22B does not quit. With hot-swap battery technology, the Medix E22B can be safely unplugged from a wall outlet and still operate normally. In an emergency situation, the last thing you want to be worrying about is how to transfer medical data around with a patient. The Meddix E22B allows doctors to unplug their medical computer and follow their patient with the same data they admitted them with.

Medix T24B

The T24B with Hot-Swap batteries for Emergency Room use
The T24B with Hot-Swap batteries for Emergency Room use

The Medix T24B from Tangent features the same hot-swap battery technology as the Medix E22b, also with three built in slots for batteries. This allows the Medix T24B to not only access the power of three batteries at once, but continuously run 24/7 without being plugged in. The Medix T24B is perfect for medical carts that are constantly in demand and cannot afford to be put out of commission for charging. With 6th generation Intel processors, this medical computer is as fast as it is reliable and can handle any medical program thrown at it.

Medix KW 15

Medical grade computer for emergency room us, the KW line from Tangent
Medical grade computer for emergency room use, the KW 15 from Tangent

As hospital emergency rooms become increasingly more crowded, every square inch of space will become ever more valuable. That’s why smaller medical computers such as the Medix KW 15 are a vital tool for any emergency room. While examination and surgery rooms can afford the luxury of a widescreen medical computer, the same may not be true for emergency rooms. The Medix KW 15 features all the power of a traditional medical computer but in a sleeker, smaller package. This allows doctors more space to treat patients, while still maintaining the computational power needed to do their job to the fullest. 

Reduce Emergency Room Times With Medical Computers

With emergency room wait times only expected to rise, the time to plan for a crowded emergency waiting room is now. Medical computers from Tangent can help reduce wait times, improve emergency room computing power, and help those truly in need of help.

Medical computers by Tangent are also Antimicrobial computers

The Importance Of Antimicrobial Medical PCs

We all like to think of hospitals as places in society where people go to get healthier, and for the most part this is true. However, this is not always the case as hospitals can inadvertently become breeding grounds for harmful diseases. The CDC estimates that each and every day, 1 in 31 hospitals will see a healthcare-associated infection (HAI).

Coinciding with a decrease in the viability of antibiotics, HAIs can turn hospitals into hazardous areas for those who are prone to infection. Often, these same individuals are the ones most in need of a hospital’s services. So what can be done?

Antimicrobial Computers Offer A Compelling Solution

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to HAIs, antimicrobial computers offer one way to minimize the risk of such infections from occurring. Antimicrobial computers are medical computers that are coated with an antimicrobial treatment. This coating causes the medical computer to be deadly to harmful bacteria, much like how the natural properties of copper make the metal germ-phobic. Typically, every medical computer is an antimicrobial computer, but it is important to check beforehand if this is the case. Luckily, at Tangent all of our medical computers are antimicrobial computers and UL60601-Certified.

Are Antimicrobial Computers Safe?

Antimicrobial computers are not only safe, they are some of the safest medical computers out there. Their antimicrobial coating prevents bacteria from breeding and growing on the medical computer’s surface without being harmful to doctors and patients. Antimicrobial computers are perfectly safe to touch, which is one of the reasons why Tangent’s lineup of medical grade computers are all touchscreen enabled. This allows doctors to use these antimicrobial computers without worrying about the bacteria on their hands. Unlike computers reliant on mice and keyboards, antimicrobial medical computers will not become breeding grounds for bacteria.

Are Antimicrobial Computers Easy To Clean?

Not only are antimicrobial computers easy to clean, they are built to be cleaned! While other computers and computer monitors require specialty cleaning agents in order to not be damaged, antimicrobial medical computers are able to be cleaned with traditional cleaning supplies. Regular cleaning does not remove the antimicrobial coating either, ensuring that these medical computers last well past their warranty. What’s more, antimicrobial computers mitigate the growth of harmful bacteria on their surface, meaning that with a cleaning they become nearly germ free.

Antimicrobial Computers: Reduce Your HAIs

If reducing the amount of HAIs in your hospital is a priority, then antimicrobial medical computers may be the solution you are looking for. These advanced medical computers come in various sizes and styles, and can quickly and easily become an indispensable tool for your facility.