A proven safety risk
Alarm fatigue

More than just a nuisance

The proliferation of alarms generated by monitoring systems is a growing concern for anyone committed to patient safety. Exposure to excess alarms in care settings, especially non-actionable alarms, can result in desensitisation among the clinicians that they are intended to alert, a syndrome called alarm fatigue.

Alarm fatigue can lead to reflexive silencing of alarms, breaking monitoring protocols and missing true positive alarms—placing a burden on caregivers and jeopardising their ability to care for patients.

When an alarm goes off you want to make sure it is clinically relevant.”

Ineke van de Pol

ICU nurse practitioner, St. Antonius Hospital, The Netherlands

An insider’s view of
alarm overload

For short-staffed nurses, false alarms are more than annoyances. Most nurses say they are affected by alarm fatigue, ¹ which can cause stress, depression, reduced productivity and burnout. This video attempts to illustrate what it’s like to care for a patient in today’s alarm-filled environment.

Watch
and listen

Turn on your sound to get the full experience

A quick survey

Taking alarm management from concept to reality

Discover where you stand when it comes to alarm management. We invite you to participate in this survey taking alarm management from concept to reality.*

* All data will remain anonymous.

Take the survey

Excessive false alerts
impact a hospital on many levels

Clinical

Missing actionable alarms jeopardises patient safety.

Financial

Patient harm as a result of over-alarming can have costly repercussions from transfers to the ICU, extended length of stay and litigation.

Technical

The lack of alarm customisation for individual patients can create excessive nuisance alarms.

Operational

About 10% of nursing time is lost responding to non-actionable alarms.

Growth

A stressful, noise-filled work environment can contribute to staff burnout.

Regulatory

Non-compliance can be costly, as health care moves from volume to value-based care models.

5 key facts about alarm fatigue

When you consider that patients, staff and families may be exposed to up to 700 alarms a day, ² it’s no surprise that alarm fatigue is a serious problem. Yet few hospitals have comprehensive programs to manage “alarm pollution” and there is no clear evidence-based practice because no two patients or units are exactly the same. Understanding the scope of the problem is an important first step. Start by educating yourself and your colleagues with these facts from recent research.

Tell us a little about yourself and download the 2-pager.

Download now

Contact information

* This field is mandatory

Country

Contact details

First name*

Last name*

Salutation

Academic title

Email address*

Phone

Company details

Company

Job title*

Specialty

State or Province

Zip or Postcode

What is cross border data transfer?

I agree on cross-border transfer of personal information.

I would like to receive marketing related communications about Philips products, services, events and promotions that may be relevant to me based on my user preferences and behaviour.

Alarm management 101

Alarms are a good thing… aren’t they? Raise your team’s awareness about alarm fatigue with this module from a Philips alarm management consultant.

This downloadable and video drills down into the root causes and impact of the problem and shares research on how it is currently perceived.

Register to access the free online module.

Contact information

* This field is mandatory

Country

First name*

First name (phonetic)

Last name*

Last name (phonetic)

Salutation

Academic title

Email address*

Business phone

Company*

Job title

Industry

Function

Specialty

Department

State or Province

City

Address

Zip or Postcode

By specifying your reason for contact we will be able to provide you with a better service.

Follow up information

Preferred method of contact

Best time to call

Estimated time of purchase

Comments

What is cross border data transfer?

I agree on cross-border transfer of personal information.

I would like to receive marketing related communications about Philips products, services, events and promotions that may be relevant to me based on my user preferences and behaviour.

Contact information

* This field is mandatory

Country

First name*

First name (phonetic)

Last name*

Last name (phonetic)

Salutation

Academic title

Email address*

Business phone

Company*

Job title

Industry

Function

Specialty

Department

State or Province

City

Address

Zip or Postcode

By specifying your reason for contact we will be able to provide you with a better service.

Follow up information

Preferred method of contact

Best time to call

Estimated time of purchase

Comments

What is cross border data transfer?

I agree on cross-border transfer of personal information.

I would like to receive marketing related communications about Philips products, services, events and promotions that may be relevant to me based on my user preferences and behaviour.

Alarm management:
become the expert

Philips is
here to help

Learn about our proven methods

The price for patients

Find out why you should protect your patients

Find out more

What drives alarm fatigue?

Discover new facts and approaches for making effective change

Learn more

Get some practical guidance

Success stories, exclusive case studies and proven solutions

Footnotes:

[1] Juniper Consulting. Junicon Web Survey, 2012.

[2] Cvach, M., "Monitor Alarm Fatigue: An Integrative Review", Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, July/August 2012, pp. 268-277.

A proven safety risk
Alarm fatigue

Patients and alarms

More than just a nuisance

An insider’s view of
alarm overload

A quick survey

Taking alarm management from concept to reality

Excessive false alerts
impact a hospital on many levels

5 key facts about alarm fatigue

Contact information

Contact details

Company details

Alarm management 101

Contact information

Subscribe

Become the alarm advocate in your unit. Now!

Contact information

Alarm management:
become the expert

Philips is
here to help

A proven safety risk Alarm fatigue

Patients and alarms

More than just a nuisance

An insider’s view of alarm overload

A quick survey Taking alarm management from concept to reality

Excessive false alerts impact a hospital on many levels

5 key facts about alarm fatigue

Contact information

Contact details

Company details

Alarm management 101

Contact information

Subscribe Become the alarm advocate in your unit. Now!

Contact information

Alarm management: become the expert

Philips is here to help

A proven safety risk
Alarm fatigue

An insider’s view of
alarm overload

A quick survey

Taking alarm management from concept to reality

Excessive false alerts
impact a hospital on many levels

Subscribe

Become the alarm advocate in your unit. Now!

Alarm management:
become the expert

Philips is
here to help