A clinical engineer's view of medical instrumentation.

Physicians and nurses frequently assume that a better level of patient care exists when instrumentation is involved. This is true only when the equipment applicable to the problem is knowledgeably selected, properly maintained, and used in a suitable setting by personnel who understand the product and know how to respond when the unexpected occurs. If any of thes components are missing, it may well jeopardize a patient's well-being. Only by the adoption of explicit policies, properly enforced, can these omissions be controlled and thus assure the medical staff that the use of instrumentation will indeed benefit patient care.