Effective approaches to control non-actionable alarms and alarm fatigue

Alarm fatigue is a problem, well-recognized by clinicians, where exposure to high rates of clinical alarms, especially non-actionable ones, results in desensitization leading to dismissal of or slowed responses to the alarms. The risk to patients is poorly understood but may be substantial when the alarms that are true are ignored or the response is delayed. The effect on patients' families and the patients themselves is even more unclear but frequent alarms likely create psychological and physiological stress that may affect patient outcomes. Several recent reviews and studies have highlighted this clinical problem. In fact, the Joint Commission, in 2013. asked accredited hospitals to make alarm management a top safety priority leading to a 2016 National Patient Safety Goal that seeks to address these safety concerns.