Home Forums Discussions General Discussion ECG Monitor

I need some advice. Our ecg machine seems to have developed a bad case of anxiety and is showing all sorts of interference. We have replaced the leads, tried with multiple patients....no luck. Seems we need a new one. Have any of you bought the system that is listed as an ac partner from Midmark? It would be nice to be able to load the graph directly to the medical record. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Dave Stroh

Hi Dave:

We had the same situation:

we were trying to figure what changed -- computerization of our office, LASERS from those printers, high tension wires running a mile away etc..

turns out it was the sticky pads- we got a bad batch. We changed our vendor to cardiologyshop.com, that worked for us.

long ago we had to replace the cables, that had worked too.

I would suggest changing the sticky electrodes on body. that is the least expensive start...

good luck.

On the Midmark issue, we dont have the EKG but we do have the Midmark Spirometer. The spirometer works GREAT! So I assume the EKG will too, unless I receive contradicting information.

We were using an old EKG that always had problems. We sublet office space from another MD and we share some equipment. He can use our spirometer. We use his EKG. But he opted to purchase a less expensive one than the Midmark IQmark EKG. It works ok, but doesnt inport into AC, doesnt export into any type of open system document that can be read by another program. It also broke after about 2 months, but was apparently still under warranty. Occassionally the USB port would say that the EKG was sending an incorrect voltage or current and so the port shut itself down to protect itself from damage. Not too good. It think the EKG is from Cardiocart. I don't recommended it.

Nancy and I really like our MidMark ECG and Spirometry, but boy were they expensive, like hey we just don't get paid that much to do these things. Matter of fact, anyone notice that the fees on ECG's has gone down this year??? Both medicare and private carriers.

I think that for folks like us who buy these extra cost devices,as well as the cost for interfaces to our EMR's that there should be like an extra code for ECG's. "12 lead ECG preformed and saved directly to EMR" that is like 20% higher than for folks who use the old tape and cart ones. Code 93000E or something like that. And not byu dropping the old style ones like they are doing right now, but by actually paying for it. Everybody wants this stuff, but who wants to actually pay for it??? We'll ask for hightech bells and whistles while we cut the providers fees for buying all this extra stuff. I'm not even sure over three years later if we have even run enought spriometry to off set the cost of buying the darn thing or not. How's that for ya??? Ask for more and more, while paying less and less. Go take a hike...

Good Night and Good Luck
Paul

Have good relations with your local hospital.
They are always upgrading their gadgets.
Before you buy anything expensive like EKG machines, call your local hospital administrator and see if they are trying to get rid of ...

tell them you are interested in that....

buy that with lesser ducats.

stay a model or two behind, you will have a chance to upgrade too in future!!

Your reimbursement will still be the same as for a new one.

You don't have a warranty, but you take a chance there. You see nothing lasts forever.

Good luck.