A thirty-two year perspective on a clinical engineer's contributions to patient safety

Clinical Engineers (CE's) and Clinical Engineering departments began appearing in hospitals a little over thirty years ago. The impetus for their creation was often based on a single patient safety issue. From those early days to now, the contributions of CE's to patient safety problems and issues has spanned many topics and operations. The experiences of one CE are presented and illustrated by several examples of patient safety issues and the CE department involvement in patient safety improvement through individual, department, and committee efforts.