The use of a checklist for anaesthetic machines

The use of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland checklist for anaesthetic machines, based on an oxygen analyser, was surveyed over a 5-week period in a teaching hospital. Fifty-five completed checklists were analysed; no problems developed during anaesthesia which were missed by the checklist. The mean time taken to complete the checklist for one machine was 8.9 min with a range of 5 to 19 min; for two consecutive machines it was 18.25 min with a range of 10 to 30 min. The most frequent faults detected were the poor reliability of some oxygen analysers, absent ventilator disconnection alarms, and absent oxygen supply failure alarms on some older machines. Faults were found in 60% of the machines checked; 18% of these were deemed to be serious.