PatCom Acute Care FEES System

FEES Cart: User-friendly handling

The PatCom FEES cart offers unique features to make your endoscopy study the most comfortable and convenient. You can perform your study sitting or standing, as it is entirely contained on a lift actuated cart. This allows for quick and individual height adjustment between different operators and is ready for use immediately. Its aluminum construction makes it very easy to navigate, giving you maximum flexibility and easy transport between multiple hospital rooms and in tight spaces. The PatCom FEES cart is equipped with a large storage surface, which is ideal for food trials. It is also equipped with a secure locking laptop insert, keyboard and mouse tray, food trials storage drawer, and quick-connect equipment brackets.

Configuration with 13.5” Microsoft Windows 11 Laptop: Maximum Flexibility

The PatCom FEES cart can be configured with the 13.5” Microsoft Windows 11 Laptop that comes with the PatCom Portable FEES System. This allows maximum flexibility for facilities that do FEES internally, but also need the portability to take the system outside of the facility. The equipment can be easily transferred from the acute care cart into the portable FEES case within minutes. The laptop comes with our MediaWorkstation software, which is needed for adequate reviewing of studies.

Configuration with 27” All-in-One Monitor: Powerful with an excellent image.

The medical all-in-one monitor is powered by a powerful Intel® Core™ i-processor and features a 27″ display, as well as a slim and bacteria-resistant housing. The monitor is mounted on the cart and can be rotated so that your patient also has an optimal view of the examination. Due to the size and excellent resolution, the monitor provides you with superior image quality, making it ideal for swallowing diagnostics in the clinic. The touchscreen makes the handling of the monitor very easy and in combination with our PatCom Distal Chip Endoscope and our “MediaWorkstation” software, you are perfectly equipped for studies.

Endoscopes

PatCom Distal Chip with tip facing right

The PatCom Distal Chip Endoscope is best suited for the use in swallowing diagnostics (FEES) and in the ENT field. With the USB plug-and-play design, it can be used on a variety of platforms and devices without any additional software. The HD resolution allows for superb image quality. The endoscope is lightweight and built with an ergonomic design. “High Definition” or HD resolution starts at a pixel amount of 720p vertically. This is also referred to as small HD. The PatCom Distal Chip Endoscope offers an HD resolution of 1280p x 720p. This enables a very sharp image and even the smallest structures, such as blood vessels and micro aspiration in the trachea, are clearly displayed.

Features:

Resolution: High Definition – 720p x 1280p
Small diameter of 3.2 mm
Weight less than 0.5 lb
Rounded endoscope tip for increased patient comfort and easy guidance
Plug and Play (no driver required); One simple USB connection for ultimate portability and technical simplicity

The PatCom FEES endoscope comes in small diameters of 3.4mm and 2.8mm which makes it the perfect choice for adults and children of all ages. The highly innovative camera technology allows for the system to be connected to either Windows or Mac computers.

In addition to the integrated camera processor the PatCom FEES system is equipped with light technology that delivers more brightness than most systems. The ability to manually adjust brightness is an additional feature that is crucial when performing FEES.

Ergonomic handling of your endoscope when performing FEES is very important. Holding your endoscope for up to 20 minutes per exam can put significant stress on your own body. Therefore, the Patcom FEES system is designed as a light weight, ergonomic solution. The design allows you to use the endoscope while remaining a natural 90 degree angle of your elbow leaving it close to your body. This is the ideal positioning for you while performing the FEES exam.

Features:

Integrated camera processor eliminates the need of heavy control unit
Camera technology with fine focus provides sharp images no matter the position in the pharynx
Small diameters of 3.4mm and 2.8mm allow exams of children, adults and especially difficult passages
Rounded endoscope tip for increased patient comfort and easy guidance
Adjustable high power LED technology for optimal brightness
One simple USB connection for ultimate portability and technical simplicity

The PatCom software suite includes multiple software options that are tailored to your specific needs. A basic software design including all features mentioned above is available. For hospitals requiring a patient database, DICOM capabilities and higher compliance levels a separate software solution is offered. Your PatCom representative can discuss the different software solutions in detail.

Software: User-friendly and Intuitive

For a successful fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) exam the recording of the exam in video and audio is important. The audio recording portion is highly valuable as you are able to listen to your own announcements of food trials as you were feeding your patient. This will help you to correlate the visual recording of the swallow and the food trial given when writing your report. It is a big time saver for you. As far as the video recording is concerned there should be several basic features that your software should include:

Take snapshot of video frame. This is to add a still image of a swallow to your report.
Play/Pause to stop your video for examination and to take a high quality snap shot.
Fast Forward to get to the next swallow in your recording quicker.
Slow Motion to evaluate anatomical movement in great detail.
Frame by Frame movement through the video recording to utilize highest quality frames.

Cleaning

Infection control and the proper cleaning of your endoscopes is crucial to prevent any cross contamination between patients. PatCom endoscopes can be manually cleaned via high level disinfectant by full submersion or insertion portion submersion. Thorough and accurate manual cleaning is the recommended method of cleaning as it is the gentlest cleaning process for the equipment. Our endoscopes are validated for use with Cidex OPA & Revital Ox Resert. Our fiberoptic scopes are also validated for use in the following sterilization machines and washers:

Sterrad 100S
Sterrad 100NX (Duo Cycle)
Steris VPro Max
Steris System 1E
Medivator (depends on the HLD being using; OPA is okay; Rapicide is not)
ASP AEROFLEX or EVOTECH

Defer to your infection control and/or SPD for policies/procedures around processing endoscopes. Please contact your PatCom representative for additional questions regarding cleaning solutions. See above for a sample manual cleaning process, while following the manufacturer’s guidelines for proper immersion duration.

Training And Education

Representatives of the American Board of Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (AB-SSD) and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Special Interest Group (SIG) 13: Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia) developed a tutorial on best practice guidelines for FEES. In this tutorial, they suggest 6 steps to obtain FEES competency.

Attend and complete an ASHA CE Approved External FEES Course or Internal Facility Mentored Training
Take and Complete an Exam Based on the Content of the Course
Passing and Handling Scope: Healthy Volunteers
Passing the Scope and Performing a FEES Exam: Patients
Mentor Assessment
Indirect Supervision: Final Step

With these recommended steps in mind, PatCom Medical Inc. collaborates with the world leaders in FEES education to assist you with training and competency. Link for the article: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00348?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed Langmore, Susan E et al. “Tutorial on Clinical Practice for Use of the Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing Procedure With Adult Populations: Part 1.” American journal of speech-language pathology vol. 31,1 (2022): 163-187. doi:10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00348

The Service

Pledge to raise industry standard of customer service to new levels
7 day technical support by phone, email and text
Remote access software service included
Free loaner during repair

One of the the main reasons PatCom Medical Inc. was established is the desire to commit to a level of customer service that goes above and beyond what others do. The PatCom service concept includes a variety of more and less common elements that ensure our customers are able to perform their own work without interruption. However, it this the underlying understanding of everyone at PatCom to make our customer’s problems ours to solve that sets us apart.

As responsiveness is a key element of good service we offer support 7 days a week by phone, email and text. We offer remote access service free of charge where we have the ability to take control of your Stroboscopy system’s computer to solve any software related issues within minutes.

If your equipment ever needs to be serviced at our service center we offer free loaners during the repair process. To keep the turn around time itself as short as possible a US based service center is available.

There is a chance that you have existing stroboscopy equipment from a third party manufacturer. PatCom Medical is able to provide service for a number of systems and is able to integrate new equipment with what you already own.