Clinical engineering in the Southeast.

A fully developed in-house clinical engineering program has much to offer to a large community hospital. In the southeast U.S., many community hospitals-600 beds or fewer-have implemented partial programs and, as a result, have received only a partial return on their investment. A comprehensive program extends maintenance support to all patient-care devices, is intimately involved in the new device specification, evaluation, and selection process with the medical staff-standardizing whenever appropriate- and significantly involved in the continuing education program for in-house users of devices.