Top 10 Technology Hazards for 2012: The Risks That Should Be at the Top of Your Prevention List

Deciding how to prioritize your efforts when tackling the risks associated with healthcare technology is a continual challenge. Device planning, selection, implementation, use, and support—all these (and more) figure into the choice of which risks to give the greatest attention.

Not only are there a lot of areas to consider, but also the technology-safety landscape changes all the time—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.

That’s why our list of the top 10 health technology hazards is updated each year: to help you focus on the most pressing safety issues over the next 12 months. To develop the list, we’ve weighed a number of factors, particularly those listed below. You can examine the same factors when judging the criticality of each of these hazards for your own facility.

Although this article focuses on specific technology hazards, there are steps you should be taking throughout your facility to make your safety initiatives as effective as possible. See the “General Recommendations” below for a list of those steps.

Finally, we urge you to share this list with others throughout your facility. The hazards in this list affect a wide variety of departments and personnel, including risk management, hospital administration, clinicians, clinical engineering, information technology (IT), nurse managers, and materials management. We encourage you to alert staff in those areas to this list and its recommendations.

To view all of our annual Top 10 Hazards lists, visit the Top 10 Hazards archive.

...