A clinical engineering program has been provided for the Clinical Center. This program establishes standards and procedures for the hospital such as: (1) fire prevention; (2) calibration of medical equipment; (3) electrical safety; (4) incident (mishap) investigation; and (5) test and evaluation. Another focus of the program is to participate actively in the formulation of national standards such as the National Electric Code, the Manual for the Safe Use of Electricity in Hospitals, the standards of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) and the standards of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. A recent initiative is a joint undertaking of a medical ' equipment management program with the Clinical Care Instrumentation Section, BEIB. This initiative consists of rewriting procedures to satisfy expanded requirements of the Joint Commission. Another facet of this program is the evaluation of computer technology to track equipment expenditures to provide better control of costs.
