Occasionally, I receive e-mails from readers trying to find information on certain standards and regulations. I usually turn to my well-informed editorial advisory board for answers, but this time I thought I’d put this question out to all of you to find out your best practices for finding information on regulations/standards, and also to solicit your response to the following inquiry.

Biomed Supervisor Louis Lueck at Saratoga Hospital, Saratoga Springs, NY, has asked the following: Is there a regulation out there stating that there is a certain number of backup anesthesia machines you need to have per a certain number of active ones?

If you have an answer for Louis, I hope you’ll respond to this posting so everyone can benefit from the information. Also, what resources do you use to find answers to these types of questions?

In the Weekly Jolt of January 20, we printed news about University HealthSystem Consortium's (UHC) selection of AeroScout Inc, as one of two suppliers for systems and equipment asset tracking.

Greg Bankowski of Children's Hospital of Michigan e-mailed me to confirm an item in the news and offered up a "best practices" reminder for facilities considering purchasing an asset tracking system: Don't forget that each hospital should run testing to determine if the product of choice will interfere with medical equipment.

My thanks to Greg for writing and I encourage each of you to comment on this blog as well as share your "best practices" on any other subject. You can e-mail me your ideas on a different topic at jkirst@ascendmedia.com and I'll be happy to post your suggestion.