Metrics for equipment-related patient safety.

Larry Fennigkoh is a professor of biomedical engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering. E-mail: fennigko@ msoe.edu There is no question that the most effective way to respond to a question is with a set of relevant facts. Facts are generally irrefutable; colloquially we say, “The facts speak for themselves.” A database is nothing more than a convenient vehicle for collecting, organizing, and storing facts. However, since all tasks involve some level of effort, it is appropriate to ask what is to be gained by committing valuable technical resources to the task of building some particular database. What will we get in exchange for this effort? In other words, what important question, or questions, will this collection of facts allow us to answer? Identifying these important questions is the very first step toward designing a database that will be useful. An examination of the typical clinical engineering department’s basic mission statement reveals that we need answers to at least the following three questions: 1. Does the department have all of the facility’s medical equipment under “appropriate control”? 2. Is the department’s equipment control and maintenance program producing a level of equipment-related patient safety that is within an acceptable range? 3. Is the net cost of the program (the total cost less any tangible economic benefits) reasonable?