Electrical safety in patient care areas

Editorial Note:Safety standards for hospital and medical electrical equipment are - or should be - an issue on which international change greatly accelerates progress. In the first issue of this Journal, Reidar Karlsen provided a Norwegian approach to the quality dilemma where medical devices are concerned, and in the second issue Cornelis van Gruting provided an analysis of public policies in the field. In this issue, we examine a complementary topic: the safety of electrical equipment as a whole in hospitals and clinics. The paper is published simultaneously in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and appears here with the permission of the Canadian Medical Association.