How Abbott Northwestern is reducing alarm fatigue to enhance patient safety

A new study from one of the intensive care unit at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis indicates having fewer medical device alarms may increase nurse response time to such alarms, according to a Star Tribune report.

Medical device alarms serve as indicators for patient vital signs, equipment notifications and communication tools between patients and staff, to name a few. Despite being a vital instrument in patient care, having so many beeps, buzzes and rings can also cause alarm fatigue in healthcare workers.

Too many alarms can also keep ICU patients who need rest awake, upset hospital visitors and become too bothersome to the relatives of longer-term patients that they just turn them off themselves, according to the report.

To keep healthcare workers from feeling nuisanced or unaffected by the alarms, Abbott adjusted the default settings of the pulse-rate alarms to not go off for conservatively high or low beats per minute, dropping the number of pulse alarms 76 percent within six months.

Even with fewer alarm notifications, the hospital found no instances of missed patient emergencies and found nurses responded to the alarms faster than before the hospital changed the pulse-rate settings

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., experienced similar results when it reduces the number of alarms in its critical care units, according to the report.

Abbott has since expanded its alarm reduction to the EKG alarms in its neurology ICU and plans to continue expanding the project to alarms for IV lines, oximeters and other mechanisms.

 

 

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