GE 5448623, Basic Service Manual

Page: 209 / 289

Warnings and important information
Venue 50 – Basic Service Manual 8-5
5447566-100 English Rev. 7
Returning/shipping probes and repair parts
Equipment being returned must be clean and free of blood and
other infectious substances.
GE policy states that body fluids must be properly removed from
any part or equipment prior to shipment. GE employees, as well
as customers, are responsible for ensuring that parts/equipment
have been properly decontaminated prior to shipment. Under no
circumstance should a part or equipment with visible body fluids
be taken or shipped from a clinic or site (for example, body coils
or an ultrasound probe). The purpose of the regulation is to
protect employees in the transportation industry, as well as the
people who will receive or open this package.
NOTE: The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has ruled that
“items that were saturated and/or dripping with human blood
that are now caked with dried blood; or which were used or
intended for use in patient care” are “regulated medical waste”
for transportation purposes and must be transported as a
hazardous material.
If the Venue 50 needs to be sent for repair, ensure that any
patient information is erased from the storage device, or that the
storage device is removed from the Venue 50 before shipping.
In case that any patient information is still residing on the Venue
50, GE will contact the customer and request for urgent
collection of that patient information. GE will keep this patient
information in a secure environment for a maximum period of 1
month. All patient information will be permanently deleted at that
point.
If PHI (Patient Healthcare Information) data needs to be sent to
GE employees for service purposes, GE will ascertain
agreement from the customer. The patient information shall only
be transferred by approved service processes, tools and
devices restricting access, protecting or encrypting data where
required, and providing traceability in the form of paper or
electronic documents at each stage of the procedure while
maintaining compliance with cross-border restrictions of patient
information.