In April 2013, The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert for "alarm fatigue" among hospital staff — an overabundance of information transmitted by medical devices that can compromise patient safety.
In a recent whitepaper, Amcom Software recommends two methods for improving clinical alarm safety.
Reduce the din. Decreasing the number of alarms can help reduce alarm fatigue. To accomplish this, hospitals can reconfigure medical devices' settings so an alarm only goes off when there is something that can or should be done for the patient, reducing the number of alarms heard that necessitate no action. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses recommends changing electrodes daily to help reduce the number of alarms caused by disconnected leads.
Employ mobile notifications. Sending follow-up alarms to clinicians' mobile devices can help ensure the most pressing alarms are handled in a timely manner. Mobile notification software also tracks which alerts have not been responded to, helping a hospital track compliance with alarm response.
More Articles on Alarms:
Top 10 Patient Safety Tools Feb. 17-21
Optimizing Patient Monitoring at Florida Hospital Tampa
Patient Safety Tool: Strategies to Manage Alarm Fatigue