While faulty alarms continue to be a perennial risk, several of the other top medical device technology risks cited in ECRI's annual roundup of health technology hazards have gotten relatively little recognition.

Qmed Staff
 

1. Improper Cleaning of Flexible Endoscopes Can Spread Superbug Infections

The failure to adequately reprocess contaminated instruments--that is, to clean and disinfect or sterilize them--before using them on subsequent patients can lead to the spread of deadly pathogens.

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2. Alarm Problems Can Contribute to Deaths and Injuries

Creating an effective medical alarm may sound straightforward on the surface, but it is anything but.

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3. USB Port Glitches in Medical Devices

Many medical devices have USB ports. Plugging unauthorized devices into those ports can cause an array of problems, triggering, for instance, some physiologic monitors to reboot, according to the ECRI Institute report.

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4. Intensive Care Ventilator Problems

 Inappropriate patient ventilation can cause lung injury in intensive care patients, possibly proving fatal in some cases.

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5. Gamma Camera Defects

FDA has received multiple reports of mechanical failures linked to gamma cameras, which can threaten patients and hospital staff members.

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