Taping the EKG leads: other options?

[fiznat]

It's a thing of mine: I have to tape the 4 wires of the 3 lead ECG together at the beginning of every shift. I tape the black and white together, and then the red and green together. I feel it makes it much easier to organize on scene, and the tape prevents the leads from getting really tangled together.

Other people at work, including the medic who relieves me, are very much against it. They say the tape is unsanitary and promotes cross-contamination between patients from various nasties that "stick to the tape." I'm skeptical about this to begin with, but I would like to find another solution if possible. I heard from someone else that LifePak actually sells plastic clips for this purpose? I looked on their website though and couldn't find anything like that.

Any suggestions?

EDIT:

Things I've thought of:

-Zip ties might work, but they can ruin the leads if they need to be taken off

-Electronic stores have various cable clips, but often they are too big/bulky and would defeat the point

-Velcro straps might work but they might be tough to clean

[Just Plain Ruff]

here is your fix

take a rubber foam or some type of material like that.

Cut or slice 4 slices in the foam. Put the lead wired in the slices and whalla!!! you have a holder.

I don't think taping is a good idea. What happens when you need to seperate the lead wires?

How bout rubber bands?

or twist ties you get from the local market or off your bread bags.

[ncmedic309]

Zoll makes a couple clips that keep your limb and precoridal leads in order and keeps them from getting tangled - they are easy to remove and put back on and simple to keep clean. I'm not sure where they are sold - but you might be able to find something on a site that sells Zoll products.

[katbemeEMT-B]

We also use the clips. Not all the medics and emts like them so it makes it a convenient way to change things out before and after a shift. They just snap on and off. They easily slide up and down the leads for adjustment and then snap down to hold them in place. Ours were ordered with the monitors.

[Medic26]

I am slightly anal when it comes to the limb leads getting all knotted together, so at the start of my shift I pre-attach a strip of 4 electrodes to the leads and pre-attach the precordial leads to electodes too. Of course we carry our electrodes in strips of 4 so they stay put. We have Zoll and I have seen those clips laying around but never failed when we used them that someone will take them off or lose them.

[OVeractiveBrain]

My roommate in college began his entrapreneurial conquests with "Speed Lead" the retractable and/or disposable electrocardio gram leads. Yes, ladies and gentleman, retractable. Unfortunately, he left that company to start kiko, before he started Justin.TV (shameless plug for a growing business). I dont know what happened to that company after they started to get incubated. Maybe never panned out? Who knows.

Im a big fan of dealing with it. It takes I think 5 seconds do separate them out, and if they are tangled, "here emt partner, fix this please while i start the line with the bag you just spiked." I cant see anything wrong with taping, though I find that rolling them up well, then, while unrolling, pinching the arm leads together and drawing them out. Once you have up and down separated, its pretty easy. Alternatively, if they get really tangled, just do clavicles and abdomen, so it doesnt matter how far apart they are.

[fiznat]

I don't think taping is a good idea. What happens when you need to seperate the lead wires?

We have both plastic perforated tape as well as the cloth stuff. I usually use the plastic tape because it rips really easy if I needed to take the leads apart.

Bread twist ties might work, although sometimes the paper comes off and the ends are kinda sharp. ...Might poke someone? I donno...

[FireMedic65]

It's a thing of mine: I have to tape the 4 wires of the 3 lead ECG together at the beginning of every shift. I tape the black and white together, and then the red and green together. I feel it makes it much easier to organize on scene, and the tape prevents the leads from getting really tangled together.

Other people at work, including the medic who relieves me, are very much against it. They say the tape is unsanitary and promotes cross-contamination between patients from various nasties that "stick to the tape." I'm skeptical about this to begin with, but I would like to find another solution if possible. I heard from someone else that LifePak actually sells plastic clips for this purpose? I looked on their website though and couldn't find anything like that.

Any suggestions?

EDIT:

Things I've thought of:

-Zip ties might work, but they can ruin the leads if they need to be taken off

-Electronic stores have various cable clips, but often they are too big/bulky and would defeat the point

-Velcro straps might work but they might be tough to clean

ok... they say its unsanitary, cross contanimation, etc etc.. but if they cleaned their equipment, there wouldn't be such problems... they are just being pricks... don't let it get to you... but if you really have stop... I would just use small pieces of velcrow

[pshep2134]

Awesome, I thought I was being anal doing this, but tangled wires drive me nuts! I use electrical tape. It is essentially the same material, cleans easily and comes off easy when it needs changing. I also have a tendency to do the same thing with the V leads, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6. It does save time and cleans things up very nice.

[fiznat]

Electrical tape would clean up nicer, although it is harder to pull apart if (for some reason) you needed to quickly untape the leads.

I'm going on a field trip to a hardware store tomorrow, maybe I can find a clip that will work.