I have a nurse who gets a K machine to test positive for bleach after a couple of rinses. It does not always happen. One nurse will do the bleach and then rinse test negative. The next day, the other nurse would come in and test positive before she runs it.

It does not happen on the 2 H machines, only the K. They both have been working with the machines for years and verified they do the same procedure and test the same way.

Any ideas?

verify the lines are plugged in completely. also to test positive the following day after testing negative would almost lead to carbon tank starting to expire. it shows early in the morning and then clears up until the tank completely expires.
couple questions
for some reason is the k used first?
what is the reading of post carbon in the early morning?

Look for a bicarb o ring that is stuck inside of the port on the front of the machine. That causes the bicarb plug to not seat properly and therefore it does not get a good rinse. The next morning after it cools down it may rinse out more bleach from the bicarb line and give a positive test for chlorine. The bicarb o rings are notorius for this problem, when one turns up missing always look in the rinse port on the machine for it.

LA....NOT!!!!
Bad answer..

well then come on RATS what's your input into the situation? there was no reply as to what the problem was so it could be a number of things. your reply was extreamly helpful.

k.i.s.s may apply here...
i've seen some folks take a bottle of test strips, and when they're done, they go in their locker at the end of the day...next time they come to work, same bottle is used..
i've seen it happen, one bottle of bad test strips, strips that have gotten wet..etc,etc,etc. will bring you to your knees

bic o ring, good answer, you're probably on the money
*chettrick* are you sure the first person gets a negative? might be , could be creative documentation, seen that, too.
good luck, let us know what you find

I have seen the oring in the bicarb port trick before. I have not looked at this machine yet and the first nurse who gets the negative is off til the middle of next week, interesting to see if the replacement nurse have the same problem.

I did talk with the second nurse who has said she has had it happen to them once, get a negative and then next day use machine again and test positive. She then rinsed and problem cleared.

Are the K machines fitted with Diasafe filters?

pato

I agree with RATS about LA. Would you run the clinic with chlorine breakthrough all day? NO.
It is more of a logical answer. Connectors not plugged in all the way, test strips, etc.

first thing is you guys just answer the mans question and leave each other alone, man it is like my 5 and 8 year old are on here.

But besides the bic oring disconnect the hanson connecters while the machine is in rinse, makes a water mess, and move the silver piece back and forth a few times on both blue and red. I have had this happen several times and this seems to work. also make sure that both the bicarb and acid wands are "popped" in all the way. hope this helps and im sure that the 2 people i was talking about in the first part will try to attack me and say that i have spelling errors or something else to that effect have a blessed day

I must agree with PB - bicker someplace else. I would hope that we are here to help, and to be helped - not to say, "Look at me! I am the fancy pants dialysis guru!"

I am going to just fire a long shot - is the nurse following the instrucions properly on the test strip - especially in relation the time in the fluid, and the time to actually read the strip?

I've seen this many times. Almost always the staff has not made sure the acid or bic spikes are pushed in all the way. The machine senses it in the port but it won't rinse. This is especially true when it happens to one staff and not the other. Some staff just get in to big of hurry.

I finally got a chance to talk with the nurse who does not have a problem. She is checking at the UF port. She says she does another rinse after the bleach. She has not seen a positive yet and even when she come sin the next day to use the machine again, it does not test positive. It is only the second nurse who comes in and sees a positive. Still following up, thanks for input.

Is the second nurse checking from the uf sample port or the machine drain line?

It can be residual bleach from the drain boards if you have that.