Too many auditory alarm signals in the clinical environment can lead to staff interruption, patient and staff dissatisfaction, and potentially present patient safety issues. The ECRI Institute identified alarm hazards as the number one health technology hazard for 2014*. How can clinicians better respond and manage in busy clinical environment?

Philips alarm management solutions are designed to help address these issues and improve clinical workflows. The first step is to enhance your alarm management program with prompt actionable alarms and alerts for earlier patient intervention. The potential benefits range from improved patient care and workflow, higher staff and patient satisfaction, and a less hectic clinical environment.

4 steps to successful alarm system management

We collaborated with a leading healthcare and life sciences consulting company to conduct an extensive evaluation and develop an action plan for successful alarm management intervention. This plan will help you develop a systematic, coordinated approach to clinical alarm system management at your hospital.

 

Assess

the noise alarm signals and practices.

Analyze

the unit alarm setting and other policies and practices.

Design

the plan based on identified solutions.

Execute

by implementing changes and measuring results while assisting you through change management.

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Just a nuisance?

Non-actionable alerts account for the majority of alarms. High levels of non-actionable alarms contribute to stress for staff and patients. Action can be taken to reduce non-actionable alarms and consequences.

Philips alarm management solutions seek to address and mitigate the problem of non-specific alarming, and also aim to decrease clinician stresses, align clinical provider practice with hospital protocols and ultimately, improve the patient experience and quality of care.

• Standardised clinical practice
• Engage physicians and other providers in improving the culture of quality
• Fewer false alarms taking up caregiver’s valuable time
• Improved workflow – fewer steps for caregivers means less time traveling around the unit and more time focused on patient care
• Consistent user experience for reduced learning time
• Easy and lower cost interoperability with systems based on standards
• Evidence-based care protocols may result in shorter length of stays
• Alignment of clinical provider practice with payer incentives
• Standards-based interoperability speeds installation
• Remote clinical and IT support facilitates troubleshooting of alarm system management issues when they arise
• Aggregates data can be consolidated for reports and analysis; enabling improved tracking of alarms, response times, risk assessment, root-cause-analysis and workflow patterns

Our IT solutions facilitate information-sharing and collaborative decision-making among your clinicians – quickly and seamlessly.

Designed to deliver more consistent and effective care across your enterprise, Philips alarm management solutions provides actionable, clinically-rich patient information, alerts and trends to relevant care-givers inform decisions and activate response. The solutions integrate into your environment and provide responsive, high-quality patient care, workflow and quality assurance initiatives.

Philips alarm systems support IT solutions that facilitate adherence with guidelines, enhance caregivers’ ability to respond quickly and appropriately, troubleshoot problems when they occur, and support quality improvement programs.