Goals
Purpose of safety plan
enhance nursing staff’s understanding of alarm fatigue, strengthen their ability to manage clinical alarms safely and effectively, and promote consistent use of evidence-based alarm practices.
Assess Burden and Trends
Collecting data on types of alarms generated, alarm frequency, and response patterns. Identify trends with the highest alarm load, common sources of false alarms, and workflow barriers that contribute to delayed responses.
Nurses
Provide frontline insight into alarm frequency, workflow barriers, and patient-care challenges; their observations are essential for identifying where alarm fatigue is most severe
When a healthcare professional waits to intervene to an alarm sounding
Delayed response
First goal of safety plan
Promote understanding and skill development through education and awareness
Defined as extensive exposure to medical device alarms causing sensory overload and desensitization
Alarm fatigue
Engage the Team
The collaborative team ensures that solutions meet clinical needs, align with technology capabilities, and are feasible for frontline staff. Each discipline will contribute knowledge for their respective area of expertise.
Biomedical engineers
Analyze alarm data from monitoring systems and identify equipment-related causes of excessive or false alarms
Name of event that occurred that caused harm to patient
Sentinel event
Second goal for safety plan
Assist staff in reducing non-actionable alarms, improve staff responsiveness to clinically significant alarms
72% - 99%
Set the Standard
Implement evidence-based default alarm settings, eliminate unnecessary alarms, and allow nurses to adjust limits according to patient condition
Clinical Educators
Review current practices and competency gaps that may contribute to improper alarm use
The Joint Commission
Third goal of safety plan
Define interdisciplinary team and role responsibility
Alarm fatigue has been demonstrated to be a major cause of ___ ___ ___
alarm related deaths
Provide Education and Training
Offer training on alarm functions, proper parameter adjustment, device troubleshooting, and best practices for alarm management.
Offer expertise on ventilator and respiratory monitor alarms which are often major contributors to alarm load.
An alert from a device that does not require a clinical response because it is not indicative of a patient's true condition or is a minor, non-threatening event
Nonactionable alarm
Fourth goal of safety plan
Develop and support a safer, more efficient safety plan to address alarm fatigue and provide improved patient care
The three factors that support the need for improvement in safety outcomes when addressing alarm fatigue in nursing staff at hospitals
1. The excessive noise
2. Physically exhausting
3. Time consuming
Implement and Monitor
Create clear response expectations, secondary notification systems and track changes in alarm frequency, staff responsiveness, and patient safety indicators. Use this data to refine strategies, address new challenges, and sustain improvements over time.
Leadership
Supports access to data, approves assessment timelines, and ensures staff engagement.
A configurable setting that defines a specific condition for triggering an alarm
parameter