OR Table Failure Spotlights Equipment Challenges

What happens when hospital-specified, -purchased, and -owned equipment fails? How is information about such failures distributed within the hospital and to the orthopaedic community at large? Which parties—doctors, OR staff, manufacturers, or hospital administrators—should assume responsibility for reporting these failures to the FDA to prevent patient harm?

The March 2016 “Case Connections,” springboarding from a case report about a failed trauma table in the March 9, 2016, edition of JBJS Case Connector, addresses those questions.