[Quality assurance of technical medical equipment. Report from a research department]

Det norske Veritas has been engaged by the Ministry of health and social affairs to establish a system to improve the use and maintenance of technical equipment in hospitals. The system is being tested in several hospital departments in Norway, among them the Department of anaesthesia at the Regional Hospital in Trondheim (Regionsykehuset). This article presents preliminary experiences. The system is complicated, and the manuals developed by Veritas are of little help to users at the clinic. The system would benefit from being made more simple, more directly problem oriented and more adjusted to the users' needs.