Fennigkoh and Smith Model for Inclusion Criteria: 15-Year Retrospective

In Brief In 2004, the JCAHO's Environment of Care standards divided medical inventory into two groups: life-support and non-life-support equipment, with prescribed expected maintenance completion rates. This requirement triggered numerous debates and motivated a more rigorous and critical review of the existent inclusion models, as well as the maintenance strategies for the included equipment. Almost every clinical engineering (CE) professional in the United States-and many outside-used or is still using some type of inclusion criteria for management and maintenance of medical equipment at their healthcare organization.The majority of these criteria are based on the original work of Dr. Larry Fennigkoh and Brigid Lagerman (nee Smith) (Fennigkoh and Smith, 1989), although numerous variations and adaptations can be found. This interview is not only a belated celebration of the silver jubilee of the publication of Fennigkoh & Smith (1989) article, but also an opportunity to gain first-hand insight into Dr. Fennigkoh's original work, including the context within which it was developed, his motivations, his goals and objectives, his assessment of success, his reaction to criticisms, revisions and improvements, and his view of the future of medical equipment management methods.