Five state treasurers call on ventilator manufacturers to remove repair restrictions

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State officials, U.S. PIRG, repair advocates, and 43,000 petition signers to urge companies to let others fix medical equipment during COVID-19 crisis

U.S. PIRG

U.S. PIRG has been pressuring ventilator manufacturers to remove restrictions on who can fix these life-saving devices. Our efforts, along with those of our allies at Repair.org, got a boost today, when five state treasurers — Pennsylvania‘s Joe Torsella, Delaware’s Colleen Davis, Illinois’ Michael Frerichs, Rhode Island’s Seth Magaziner, and Colorado’s Dave Young — sent a letter to manufacturers calling for them to release proprietary repair manuals, service keys, schematics and repair software. 

Their letter points out that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has meant that it is difficult, untimely or even impossible for manufacturer-authorized technicians to service ventilators, so manufacturers must work to empower technicians already in the hospitals. 

“In a public health crisis, every second counts,” said Torsella. “There shouldn’t be a single ventilator sitting in a closet because a hospital, already under extreme pressure, isn’t able to make necessary repairs to it. I call on manufacturers of this life-saving equipment to release this information and remove this barrier that hospitals are facing.” 

The U.S healthcare system lacks an adequate number of working ventilators to effectively treat the expected influx of COVID-19 patients. As hospitals put reserve ventilators into service, and continuously use their existing ventilators, repair and maintenance issues are life and death issues. However, many manufacturers do not provide access to repair documentation, limiting who can fix the equipment. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, for third-party medical repair companies or in-house medical engineers from trying to fix things. 

Earlier this month, U.S. PIRG delivered 43,000-plus signatures supporting the right to repair to 25 different ventilator manufacturers. 

“We need to make it easy for hospital technicians to fix ventilators, no exceptions,” said U.S. PIRG Right to Repair Campaign Director Nathan Proctor. “Let’s take quick action to get anyone who is fixing ventilators what they need. I applaud these state treasurers for adding their voices.” 

“Our hospitals are working hard to keep every existing ventilator in service,” said Young. “Anything to expedite the ability to repair current ventilators is critical to saving lives, in Colorado and across the country.”

Some manufacturers are making socially responsible changes to their repair policies as a result of the pandemic. For example, Medtronic has gone a step beyond releasing its manuals, providing access to certain part design files. However, so many companies have increased their repair restrictions in recent years, that the repair ecosystem is fragile in this time of crisis. 

The American Hospital Association estimates 960,000 people will need ventilators over the course of the pandemic. With approximately 170,000 ventilators in the country — some of which need repair to become operational — the shortage of ventilators requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. U.S. PIRG is also calling on the Trump administration to double the ventilator supply, and invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up manufacturing.

Meanwhile, iFixit, a leading online provider for service information for all kinds of products, is organizing ventilator service information so that technicians can quickly find the information they need