The “volume” continues to be tuned up on one of the hottest of topics resonating throughout 2014 that being Clinical Alarm management. The Center for Business Innovations (TCBI) inaugural The Clinical Alarm Safety Symposium — being held this week November 20-21 in Herndon, Virginia along with AAMI’s pre-event training session the day prior to this symposium indicates the HTM industries resource commitment to this very important subject. So with that said, this week’s blog is the second, a sequel if you will, to an earlier post of mine this year that I believe may be the one of the most elusive safety challenges clinical stakeholders wrestle with while still attempting to manage a “peaceful” and “silent night” patient care environment.
Why is this “clinical alarm” concept so elusive? I mean seems pretty simple me – if an alarm of any kind goes off are we not supposed to react in some way and respond to the issue that has been detected? Ignoring any kind of alarm that has a reason does not make much sense – does it? Let me share an example, let’s say in the basement of your home the “high water alarm” you may have installed in the sump pit were to go off. What would you do? Ignore it? Silence it? Probably not, because if you did most likely a bad result would be incurred like your basement filling up with water and I think you now the rest of how that story would end.
The elusiveness of this “clinical alarm” dilemma is many times derived around surrounding factors such as patient care environment, staffing availability but most commonly a lack of understanding and ownership as to the consequences that would or could occur by the silencing or proper attention to these very important “signaling” tools. Let me tell you – sit in on a deposition or be required to give testimony regarding a patient care event or possible mis-administration and the importance of responding when made knowledgeable of an issue will ring louder than any alarm you could imagine.
The ownership accountability of this continuing “clinical alarm” saga is long overdue. The purpose of any alarm designed within a device is fairly straight forward. It is there for a reason and is to be respected as well as for its ultimate purpose in assuring the safe delivery of patient care. Ignoring or compromising its designed function, purpose and delivery of message is not only a lack of responsibility but an unethical action in the delivery of caring to the patients we all serve.
1 Comment
Al, this is a great and vital topic for healthcare providers. While part of an alarm management team, I noticed the myriad of alarms was a large contributor to the tuning out of critical alarms. It seemed as though their needs to be a standard tone and decibel level for certain critical alarms accepted throughout the device manufacturing community. Perhaps this could gain traction if driven by obtaining FDA clearance. An interesting test we ran was to charge and discharge a defib on in the hallway on its crash cart. Some came running after one or two and others seemed to not hear it. We found those who did not hear it, where generally not first responders or ever had any critical care experience. Interesting how different levels of care tune out different noises. Those whom did not notice the defib where generally ones who heard a IV pump beeping from across the unit.