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Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety
BACKGROUND: Physiological monitoring systems, like Masimo, used during inpatient hospitalisation, offer a non-invasive approach to capture critical vital signs data. These systems trigger alarms when measurements deviate from preset parameters. However, often non-urgent or potentially false alarms c...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10357676/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37474134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002262 |
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author | Anderson, Hannah R Borgen, Alex C Christnacht, Rebecca Ng, Jenny Weller, Joel G Davison, Halley N Noseworthy, Peter A Olson, Rachel O'Laughlin, Danielle Disrud, Levi Kashou, Anthony H |
author_facet | Anderson, Hannah R Borgen, Alex C Christnacht, Rebecca Ng, Jenny Weller, Joel G Davison, Halley N Noseworthy, Peter A Olson, Rachel O'Laughlin, Danielle Disrud, Levi Kashou, Anthony H |
author_sort | Anderson, Hannah R |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Physiological monitoring systems, like Masimo, used during inpatient hospitalisation, offer a non-invasive approach to capture critical vital signs data. These systems trigger alarms when measurements deviate from preset parameters. However, often non-urgent or potentially false alarms contribute to ‘alarm fatigue,’ a form of sensory overload that can have adverse effects on both patients and healthcare staff. The Joint Commission, in 2021, announced a target to mitigate alarm fatigue-related fatalities through improved alarm management. Yet, no established guidelines are presently available. This study aims to address alarm fatigue at the Mayo Clinic to safeguard patient safety, curb staff burnout and improve the sensitivity of oxygen saturation monitoring to promptly detect emergencies. METHODS: A quality improvement project was conducted to combat minimise the false alarm burden, with data collected 2 months prior to intervention commencement. The project’s goal was to decrease the total alarm value by 20% from 55%–85% to 35%–75% within 2 months, leveraging quality improvement methodologies. INTERVENTIONS: February to April 2021, we implemented a two-pronged intervention: (1) instituting a protocol to evaluate patients’ continuous monitoring needs and discontinuing it when appropriate, and (2) introducing educational signage for patients and Mayo Clinic staff on monitoring best practices. RESULTS: Baseline averages of red alarms (158.6), manual snoozes (37.8) and self-resolves (120.7); the first postintervention phase showed reductions in red alarms (125.5), manual snoozes (17.8) and self-resolves (107.8). Second postintervention phase recorded 138 red alarms, 13 manual snoozes and 125 self-resolves. Baseline comparison demonstrated an average of 16.92% reduction of alarms among both interventions (p value: 0.25). CONCLUSION: Simple interventions like education and communication techniques proved instrumental in lessening the alarm burden for patients and staff. The findings underscore the practical use and efficacy of these methods in any healthcare setting, thus contributing to mitigating the prevalent issue of alarm fatigue. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10357676 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103576762023-07-21 Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety Anderson, Hannah R Borgen, Alex C Christnacht, Rebecca Ng, Jenny Weller, Joel G Davison, Halley N Noseworthy, Peter A Olson, Rachel O'Laughlin, Danielle Disrud, Levi Kashou, Anthony H BMJ Open Qual Short Report BACKGROUND: Physiological monitoring systems, like Masimo, used during inpatient hospitalisation, offer a non-invasive approach to capture critical vital signs data. These systems trigger alarms when measurements deviate from preset parameters. However, often non-urgent or potentially false alarms contribute to ‘alarm fatigue,’ a form of sensory overload that can have adverse effects on both patients and healthcare staff. The Joint Commission, in 2021, announced a target to mitigate alarm fatigue-related fatalities through improved alarm management. Yet, no established guidelines are presently available. This study aims to address alarm fatigue at the Mayo Clinic to safeguard patient safety, curb staff burnout and improve the sensitivity of oxygen saturation monitoring to promptly detect emergencies. METHODS: A quality improvement project was conducted to combat minimise the false alarm burden, with data collected 2 months prior to intervention commencement. The project’s goal was to decrease the total alarm value by 20% from 55%–85% to 35%–75% within 2 months, leveraging quality improvement methodologies. INTERVENTIONS: February to April 2021, we implemented a two-pronged intervention: (1) instituting a protocol to evaluate patients’ continuous monitoring needs and discontinuing it when appropriate, and (2) introducing educational signage for patients and Mayo Clinic staff on monitoring best practices. RESULTS: Baseline averages of red alarms (158.6), manual snoozes (37.8) and self-resolves (120.7); the first postintervention phase showed reductions in red alarms (125.5), manual snoozes (17.8) and self-resolves (107.8). Second postintervention phase recorded 138 red alarms, 13 manual snoozes and 125 self-resolves. Baseline comparison demonstrated an average of 16.92% reduction of alarms among both interventions (p value: 0.25). CONCLUSION: Simple interventions like education and communication techniques proved instrumental in lessening the alarm burden for patients and staff. The findings underscore the practical use and efficacy of these methods in any healthcare setting, thus contributing to mitigating the prevalent issue of alarm fatigue. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10357676/ /pubmed/37474134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002262 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Short Report Anderson, Hannah R Borgen, Alex C Christnacht, Rebecca Ng, Jenny Weller, Joel G Davison, Halley N Noseworthy, Peter A Olson, Rachel O'Laughlin, Danielle Disrud, Levi Kashou, Anthony H Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title | Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title_full | Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title_fullStr | Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title_full_unstemmed | Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title_short | Stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
title_sort | stats on the desats: alarm fatigue and the implications for patient safety |
topic | Short Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10357676/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37474134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002262 |
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