A methodology for technolgy risk assessment in hospitals

The health model is a complex system in which interact multiple factors including the continuous growing use of biomedical technologies in the clinical activity. This paper aims to provide to the technology decision makers in healthcare (Health Management, Clinical Engineering and Prevention and Protection Service) a decision support system for analyzing the safety level associated to the use of technology for both patients and personnel. The evaluation was carried out to different levels: 'Equipment', 'Hospital department', 'hospital' and 'Local Health System.' Moreover, the system provided a 'simulation mode' which permits to build different scenarios resulting from the application of different improving solutions such as the quality improvement of training phase or increasing the frequency of preventive maintenance actions. The system is based on the use of simple or combined indicators which were classified into five different categories depending on the area of application: 'Technical Maintenance,' 'Intrinsic Safety-Usability- Ergonomics,' 'Intrinsic Criticality,' 'Process and Training' and 'Operational Risk.' Finally the system was applied to the Florence digestive endoscopy department.