The aim of healthcare technology is to assist providers in delivering patient care, but misused technology and neglected cautions can end up endangering that care, the patient and even the user.
In the name of promoting safer practices in the perioperative arena, the ECRI Institute has issued its annual "Top 10 Health Technology Hazards" list for 2012. The list, which appears in the November issue of the institute's Health Devices journal, notes the potential dangers posed by routinely used equipment and offers recommendations and resources for sidestepping the hazards.
Given the preponderance of alarms sounding from surgical equipment, for instance, the alerts are easy to ignore or overlook. Continuous local anesthetic infusion pumps prepared without due caution can lead to medication errors. And hurried or lackluster endoscope reprocessing can lead to cross-contamination and an infectious outbreak. In each case, a moment's inattention can lead to significant and lasting repercussions.
"The technology-safety landscape changes all the time," states the report. "A new safety technology is introduced, or a new regulation is issued, or a well-recognized hazard makes national headlines, and suddenly you're forced to reexamine your priorities." In its list, the Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based non-profit healthcare research organization offers assistance in prioritizing risk management efforts for the modern-day surgical suite.
The list can be obtained by request through the ECRI Institute's website.
The complete list:
1. Alarm hazards
2. Exposure hazards from radiation therapy and CT
3. Medication administration errors using infusion pumps
4. Cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes
5. Inattention to change management for medical device connectivity
6. Enteral feeding misconnections
7. Surgical fires
8. Needlesticks and other sharps injuries
9. Anesthesia hazards due to incomplete pre-use inspection
10. Poor usability of home-use medical devices
David Bernard
