Safety Summary: Ventilators

In concert with this issue’s Evaluation of intensive care ventilators, here’s a capsule look at three fundamental ventilation safety issues. These are issues that we encounter repeatedly in investigations (both for our Problem Reporting System and by our Accident and Forensic Investigation Group), as well as while developing our Evaluations and while reviewing recalls and other corrective actions.

In addition to the general safety issues described here, we’ve published numerous reports of manufacturer- and model-specific ventilator problems in Health Devicesand Health Devices Alerts (HDA). Below, we provide a visual breakdown of the types of reports that have appeared in HDAsince January 2008.