Minimum requirements for respiratory care ventilator testing

Older respiratory care ventilators lack self-diagnostics, requiring that an operational verification procedure (OVP) be manually performed before each patient use. But because a formal OVP for these machines can take as long as an hour in some circumstances, there may not be time to perform one between patients. In this short Guidance Article, we provide a list of the minimum tests that should be performed on these older ventilators when a full OVP is not possible.