Detection of anesthesia machine faults.

One hundred ninety people attending an anesthesia meeting were given ten minutes to identify five faults intentionally created in a standard anesthesia machine. 7.3% of participants found no machine faults and 3.4% found all five faults. The average number of identified faults was 2.2. Professional background did not influence the scores, but fault detection ability was increased in practitioners with ten years or more of experience. Concealed faults that did not make the machine inoperable were most frequently missed. Greater emphasis should be placed on aggressive system checking in education programs and in daily clinical practice.