Laerdal SimMan problems/service contracts?

[Keith Trisilla]

Has anyone had any problems regarding the standard wear of their SimMen? Also, has anyone purchased the service contract beyond the one year warranty and found that it was a good purchase. We are coming close to our warranty date and were wonding if the purchase of a service contract is useful or not. Thanks in advance for any comments and advice.

[Dan Weberg]

At ASU we have not had many issues with our Simman, although the neck on our vital sim snapped. Simman has been pretty durable, and I beleive that we continue to have the extended warranty. Ruth Brooks would be a good person to contact on the warranty issues. Usually the major components of Simman last through the beatings... I guess it depends on your frequency of use and the trauma sustained. I am not a huge warranty person so, and like to try and fix things myself, but that is not always the best option!

Any other thoughts from our members.

[Keith Trisilla]

Thanks, the beatings have been minimal to date and I don't think they are going to go through too much. I'm not a huge fan of warranties either, so I'll keep checking to see if there is anyone who would recommend it. Thanks again.

[James Wright, MSN, RN, CNE]

On our original 2005 model, SimMan shorted out a capacitor that prevented viewing an EKG pattern on an external monitor or the defibrillator. He spent christmas 2006 in Wappinger Falls and was back and running for the next Semester. Covered under extended warranty. His warranty is up June 2008 and we are probably going to extend again. The changes in the warranty program are confusing and really expensive for anything beyond the basics.
Good news--He is pretty durable. We go through a number of respiratory bladders each year, but that seems to be expected. Since I don't have people doing a lot of intubations, traches, and other high stress items, so far so good.
Bad news--if it goes bad, not a lot of user serviceable parts beyond the basic wear and tear items. The parts are really expensive.
3G is coming on board--Hmmmm. time to trade up?

[Ruth Brooks]

We have purchased the second round and have to determine shortly whether to pay for the third round of service contractss. According to laerdal not many places purchase beyond year 2 & 3. We have had great service in the past with the local rep coming at a moments notice to assist us. Its risky as we don't have the funds to replace any of our 5 manikins should they go down. I'll be interested to see what other center's responses are to this question.

Ruth Brooks Director LRC ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation