An electrical power quality problem in an emergency unit from a hospital – Case study –

The paper presents a power quality survey performed in the emergency department of the County Hospital from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Basically the PQ monitoring problem was determined by the great number of so called parasitized records of the patients´ heart activity surveillance monitors. Until our study was carried out, the hospital staff conviction was that the imperfect contact of the bio-transducers and the human body (especially due to the patients´ chest and arms pilosity) was the main reason of the phenomenon. Our study proved with a high probability, a possible connection between power quality events and the parasitized records. After the identification of the problem and the countermeasures we have proposed, the problem was solved in a large proportion, but not removed entirely.