Author:
Mullen Joellan,Sattari Sulimon,Rauch Melissa,Stein Fernando,Roy Kevin,Acorda Darlene E.
Abstract
Background:
Nuisance and false alarms distract clinicians from urgent alerts, raising patient safety risks.
Local Problem:
High alarm rates in a pediatric progressive care unit resulted in experiencing 180-250 alarms per day or 1 alarm every 3 to 4 minutes per clinician.
Methods:
Through Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, environmental, policy, and technology changes were implemented to decrease the average alarms/day/bed and percentage of time in alarm.
Interventions:
Alarm settings tailored to patient needs using features embedded within the patient monitoring system were implemented and monitored with the assistance of alarm champions.
Results:
The average number of alarms/day/bed decreased from 177.69 to 96.94 over the course of 10 years, a 45.45% reduction. The percentage of time in alarm decreased from 7.52% to 2.83%, a 62.37% reduction.
Conclusions:
Arming clinicians with technology to analyze real-time clinical data made alarms meaningful and actionable, decreasing false alarms without compromising patient safety.
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)