The Effect of Alarm Fatigue on Fall-Related Incidents
Lillian Baird
3370 Professional Nursing
BSN Program
School of Nursing
Troy University
September 23, 2015
Overview of Clinical Problem:
Working throughout a 25-bed critical access hospital in rural North Carolina, which serves a largely elderly population, the frequency of confused patients is so often, a policy has been implemented to initiate a bed-alarm on all new admissions for the first 24-hours. This clinical guideline has been applied in an attempt to identify risks associated with each patient in the prevention of adverse outcomes specifically due to falls. While this policy may seem in the patient’s best interest, the overall effect of increasing the amount …show more content…
The term alarm fatigue is typically used to describe when clinicians become resistant to alarms due to imperceptibility, often caused by an abundance of false positive alarms, and also true positives that are clinically meaningless (Gross, 2011). The ECRI Institute, an organization which uses scientific research in healthcare to establish best practices for improving patient care, publishes an annual top ten technology hazards list "Alarm hazards" was the number one health technology hazard in 2012 (Cvach, 2012, 269). In 2012 the Joint Commission identified “Use Alarms Safely” as a goal, and “Reduce the harm associated with the use of clinical alarm systems” as a goal for all critical access hospitals (The Joint Commission, …show more content…
The cacophony of alarms chiming simultaneously in the average nursing unit creates an environment of resistance to the noise due to the necessity to focus amongst the racquet. Alarm fatigue directly limits the effectiveness of any fall prevention program based on the use of bed or chair alarms, which should in turn lead hospitals towards a policy of reduction in quantity to improve quality of use of alarms overall. The reduction of alarms over all would also fall in line with the Joint Commissions 2012 National Patient Safety Goal of “Reduce harm associated with the use of clinical alarm systems” (The Joint Commission,
Lillian Baird
3370 Professional Nursing
BSN Program
School of Nursing
Troy University
September 23, 2015
Overview of Clinical Problem:
Working throughout a 25-bed critical access hospital in rural North Carolina, which serves a largely elderly population, the frequency of confused patients is so often, a policy has been implemented to initiate a bed-alarm on all new admissions for the first 24-hours. This clinical guideline has been applied in an attempt to identify risks associated with each patient in the prevention of adverse outcomes specifically due to falls. While this policy may seem in the patient’s best interest, the overall effect of increasing the amount …show more content…
The term alarm fatigue is typically used to describe when clinicians become resistant to alarms due to imperceptibility, often caused by an abundance of false positive alarms, and also true positives that are clinically meaningless (Gross, 2011). The ECRI Institute, an organization which uses scientific research in healthcare to establish best practices for improving patient care, publishes an annual top ten technology hazards list "Alarm hazards" was the number one health technology hazard in 2012 (Cvach, 2012, 269). In 2012 the Joint Commission identified “Use Alarms Safely” as a goal, and “Reduce the harm associated with the use of clinical alarm systems” as a goal for all critical access hospitals (The Joint Commission, …show more content…
The cacophony of alarms chiming simultaneously in the average nursing unit creates an environment of resistance to the noise due to the necessity to focus amongst the racquet. Alarm fatigue directly limits the effectiveness of any fall prevention program based on the use of bed or chair alarms, which should in turn lead hospitals towards a policy of reduction in quantity to improve quality of use of alarms overall. The reduction of alarms over all would also fall in line with the Joint Commissions 2012 National Patient Safety Goal of “Reduce harm associated with the use of clinical alarm systems” (The Joint Commission,