There is no good healthcare tech without the guidance (and helpful nit-picking) of experienced clinicians.
Hospitals are ecosystems unto themselves. No matter how innovative: if tech doesn’t compliment the workflow of your staff, they won’t use it.
We’re just as excited as everyone else about strides in AI and tech in healthcare, but at Connexall we’ll always vote for clinically-led over cutting-edge.
That’s why, when it comes to alarm management, we prioritize internal stakeholders, diverse voices, and oversight.
Need tips on how to get clinicians more involved in software implementation?
This Month's Pulse
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The Well-Intentioned Mistake: DIY Alarm Management
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Making the Rounds - Clinical News Worth Knowing
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What’s Next in Connected Care
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The Check Up
The Well-Intentioned Mistake: Why Hospitals Opt for DIY Alarm Management
(But Shouldn't)
Hospitals who insist on “doing it themselves” when it comes to alarm management often end up with a system that creates more problems than it solves.
That’s what Shane Wilson, Productization Specialist at Connexall, has seen over his 8 years with the company. That’s why helping hospital clients establish their own alarm management committee is a critical step in the Connexall Clinical Elevate 12-month engagement.
Here’s Wilson’s recommended four-step process to create your own effective alarm management committee:
Step 1 - Form a Clinically-Led Multidisciplinary Committee
Your alarm management committee should represent the diversity of voices and needs throughout your hospital and include:
Leadership that ensures your nursing staff is well-represented
Equal representation for both IT and clinical teams (though clinicians should have the final say)
Representatives from all affected departments and units.
Step 2 - Implement Data Collection and Analysis Systems
Equip your alarm management committee with insights so they’ll be better equipped to tackle alarm fatigue, right from the source. Start by:
Developing systems to track alarm volumes, types, and response times
Deploying daily reports to identify ongoing patterns or issues in alarm response (or lack thereof)
Creating visualization tools that make alarm data accessible to the entire committee
Step 3 - Review and Optimize Primary Alarm Sources
One of the huge benefits of implementing the recommendations about alarm management from the committee is that hospitals can actively manage patient monitors. They can:
Adjust default settings on monitoring equipment based on patient population
Develop unit-specific protocols for modifying alarm parameters
Implement patient-specific adjustments for high-alarm patients
Even simple changes can bring much-needed silence to patient rooms typically ringing with alarms.
When you’re intentional about secondary notifications, alarm fatigue drops. To create an optimal secondary alarm notification program within your hospital, you’ll want to :
Create a clear distinction between primary and secondary alarms. Don’t resend every native alarm just so “everyone gets everything.”
Develop a "pull" rather than a "push" approach to alarm notifications. Start with just a handful of critical alarms, and let clinicians request any additional alerts they’d like to receive.
Implement appropriate delays and filtering mechanisms. Even a fifteen second delay could prevent a false alarm from being sent—freeing up your clinicians to respond to the urgent alerts that deserve their full attention.
Design different workflows for different alarm types. Alarms for lead’s off or low battery can get sent directly to a technical team, and avoid the clinical flow entirely.
A Moment with Shane Wilson
End to Alarm Fatigue: Alarm Management Committees in Action
Over Wilson’s many years working with client hospitals, he’s seen the impact of a well-functioning alarm committee:
Response times shrink significantly for truly important notifications
Systems and workflows evolve as the committee analyzes new usage data
Noise and interruptions within each floor and department diminish, as staff satisfaction increases
The Alarm Management Tactical Playbook
Alarm fatigue isn't inevitable—it's a solvable problem that starts with bringing the right voices to the table and letting clinical expertise lead the way. Check out the full playbook to learn more about the benefits of an effective alarm management committee in your own hospital.
We want to hear from you (we told you we care about connection), so each issue we’ll provide a clinical fill-in-the-blank. Reply with your answer. We’ll share the best responses in our next issue of Clinical Pulse.
Fill in the blank:
“In our hospital, the most challenging aspect of alarm management is _______.”
Reply to this email with your responses (and a chance to be featured!).
Thanks for reading Clinical Pulse.
Remember, a connected hospital is a thriving hospital.
Until next time,
The Connexall Team
Ready to see how Clinical Elevate can transform your clinical workflows?
Book a 30-minute consultation with our team of clinical experts.
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