Healthcare Technology Management and Clinical Engineering
Critical-task devices
Medical critical equipment is defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as equipment that is essential to patient care under normal operating conditions, and whose failure could result in the death of, or serious and immediate injury to, patients or users. Accordingly, CMS and The Joint Commission (TJC) require preventive maintenance to be performed on this equipment in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
By Khalid Ziada
Critical equipment is classified into two types:
- Life-support equipment, which we discussed in a previous article.
- Mission-critical equipment, which is the focus of this article.
What is mission-critical equipment?
Mission-critical equipment is equipment whose failure could completely interrupt a service provided to patients.
Most such devices are diagnostic, with a relatively low likelihood of causing direct harm to an individual patient. However, they are classified as critical because their failure may delay physicians’ decisions and interventions, potentially affecting multiple patients rather than just one.
For example, a CT scanner in the emergency department may fail.
Mission-critical vs. high-risk equipment
Mission-critical equipment is often confused with high-risk equipment.
For example, a ventilator is life-support equipment, but it is not necessarily mission-critical. If one ventilator fails, patient care may continue because backup units are usually available.
However, a device can be high-risk or life-supporting and mission-critical at the same time. A heart-lung machine, for instance, may be the only one in a hospital. If it fails, services may stop, and some surgeries may have to be canceled or postponed.
Classification varies by hospital
The classification of mission-critical equipment also varies from one hospital to another.
For example, an MRI scanner may be considered mission-critical if it is the hospital’s only scanner. In a hospital with multiple MRI scanners, it may not be classified as mission-critical.
Requirements for mission-critical equipment
When healthcare organizations create a list of mission-critical equipment, they should perform preventive maintenance in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. They should also develop a contingency plan for equipment failures.
Normal operating conditions and emergencies
As the definition indicates, the examples above apply under normal operating conditions—not during emergencies, disasters, or pandemics.
For example, a ventilator may not be considered mission-critical under normal operating conditions. During a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it may become one of the most operationally critical devices.