It reduced alarms on one unit from 300 per patient per day to 100 per patient per day, Cvach said. But “even if there are 100 alarms per patient per day and a nurse has three patients, that’s still a lot of alarms a nurse has to deal with,’’ she said. “We still haven’t conquered the problem.’’
Like many nurses and doctors, Cvach believes one key solution is better machines, which take into account multiple measures of a patient’s health - heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen level - to more accurately gauge whether a patient is really in crisis before an alarm sounds.
Theresa Gallivan, associate chief nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, said monitor makers need to improve their products.
Following an alarm fatigue-related death at Mass. General last year, which was first reported by the Globe, the hospital has overhauled its system for monitoring patients.
“Do we have the perfect system that has cracked the code on this? Absolutely not,’’ Gallivan said. “There is such a mismatch of technology and what we are trying to achieve.’’
Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at kowalczyk@globe.com.
