Information sources for medical equipment risk management

An effective risk management program must include specific consideration of medical equipment, and must address hazard identification, incident prevention, and the coordination of efforts to minimize losses when incidents do occur. The hazard identification and prevention components require an organized effort to utilize external and internal information sources to determine both generic and device-specific hazards, recalls, alerts and related data. Equally important is the effective processing of this information so that it is integrated into the routine activity of the hospital. Attention to these information sources can contribute to the broad clinical engineering goal of helping to assure the safe and effective use of medical equipment throughout the hospital.