Methodology for metrological confirmation in health care institutions

The metrological confirmation is one of the most widely used methodologies for guaranteeing the correct performance of biomedical equipment. This methodology consists of calibration, maintenance, and set-up with recalibration. Also, the correct selection of the equipment to be calibrated, maintenance frequencies, maximum allowed error and actions to be taken, makes crucial to have accurate methodologies for decision making, due to the high economic and social costs that a failure represents. The metrological confirmation model proposed in this paper is presented through following sections: (i) the characteristics of the equipment to be evaluated are defined, (ii) parameters for selecting the equipment to be calibrated, calibration frequencies and actions to be taken are established; and (iii) the cost of the metrological control is evaluated and the most convenient modality for the institution is defined. As a result, a model that allows designing and controlling the metrology process is proposed; also, this model permits simulating the creation of a laboratory, and taking decisions to make changes from processed real data.