
Discover in the infographic why you need an alarm management strategy and how you could benefit.
You monitor and deliver therapies to high acuity patients with devices that generate a broad range of medical alarms. Some medical device alarms are actionable, calling for your in-person intervention, while others are simply informational, raising your awareness to conditions that might escalate and later require a bedside response.
Clinical alarms can present significant workflow challenges. Developing effective methods and incorporating proven technologies to manage alarms can generate many benefits.
Patient alarms play a vital role in protecting patients in intensive care units by allowing timely responses by caregivers. However, the potentially overwhelming number of acoustic alarms poses different challenges that need to be managed systematically to avoid adverse events.
A noisy ICU environment can lead patients and caregivers to develop delirium and stress. Over 30% of patients treated in the ICUs become confused or develop delirium. Standard ICUs recorded noise levels above 45 dBA at all times, over the suggested 35 dBA by the World Health Organisation (WHO)1.
At an ICU bed, up to 350 alarms can occur per day, of which up to 95% are clinically irrelevant2. This sensory overload can lead to alarm fatigue in healthcare providers, resulting in desensitisation to alarms and even missed alarms.
Effective alarm management enables you to systematically reduce noise pollution for patients and staff to an acceptable level. As Your Specialist in Acute Care, we support you with know-how, system offerings and solutions. Learn more about the different elements of a systematic management of clinical alarms so that your patients can recover in peace and your staff can work with focus.
The Dräger Alarm Management Solution is your one-stop source for:
• Alarm auditing and reporting to gather and share core information
• Workflow consulting expertise to determine requirements
• Alarm management plan development to meet the National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) 06.01.01
• Plan implementation to change the way people deal with alarms
Partnering with top technology providers enables us to offer a range of scalable options that will fit both your clinical workflow and enterprise IT strategy. Our strong relationships ensure system compatibility with maximum reliability. In tandem with our technology partners, we at Dräger can develop an alarm management solution for your workplace and the way you work.
When undertaking an initiative around clinical alarm management, reach out to those with experience. You will find that these organizations offer research, materials and tools that will get you off to a strong start and guide you to success.