The medical equipment acquisition problems in Brazil and most of Latin American countries.

The process of acquiring medical equipments in Brazil and other Latin American countries is a continuing learning process. Several conditions in the acquisition contract have to be established by the buyer, since the consumer protection law is nonexistent or not respected by some vendors. Furthermore, few countries have laboratories for testing the performance of the equipments in general. The recommendations of this paper are based on 8 years of experience in Clinical Engineering activities in a University health complex of about 600 beds.