Alarm Management

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.

To safely manage critical patient alarms in acute care environments, we collaborate with Ascom for an integrated alarm distribution solution. By sending alerts from our Dräger patient monitors and ventilators directly out via the Distributed Information System (DIS) to a caregiver assigned to the respective patient, we enable a timely intervention for multifaceted clinical scenarios.

Draw continuous insights from your clinical alarms with Alarm History Analytics. The application can increase efficiency in clinical alarm management workflows with alarm data from connected Infinity patient monitors. Directly improve the delivery of care by systematically optimising processes and staff planning while identifying the sources of recurring alarms. Reduce alarm quantities and monitor the results over a period of time within the dashboard.