Website spotlight: Technology overload: An alarming danger
Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, March 25, 2011
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The telltale noise of a hospital is the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps of the many machines hospital patients are hooked up to during their stay. These machines have alarms—as many as 400 per patient—and many are important. They alert staff if a patient needs immediate care.
But those alarms can become such an ingrained part of the background noise that frontline staff may no longer recognize when an important alarm is sounding. Just as a mother of three small children may no longer pay attention to their screaming, with so much noise, nurses may not hear what they need to in order to provide safe care.
Take, for example, a well-publicized event at Massachusetts General Hospital in January 2010. Federal investigators concluded that alarm fatigue contributed to the death of a heart patient. A bedside alarm had been turned off, but another alarm sounded at the nurses' station—an alarm that 10 nurses failed to hear.
Editor's note: To read the rest of this free article, visit the Reading Room, part of www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
Related Products
-
Hospital Safety Center
Improve compliance with hospital safety standards from The Joint Commission, OSHA, and other regulators with this...
-
Healthcare Life Safety Compliance
Learn Life Safety Code tips and interpretations for healthcare facilities with this in-depth monthly resource.
-
CNA Training Advisor: Lesson Plans for Busy Staff Trainers
Finally-a staff training program that really works!
-
Medical Environment Update
Timely medical compliance news from OSHA, CDC, EPA, and other regulatory agencies!
-
Bloodborne Pathogens Training Video
Meets OSHA requirements for training employees on the bloodborne pathogens standard!
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- HIPAA Q&A: Answering service messages
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- Avoid the trap of probable diagnoses
- Arkansas woman convicted for HIPAA violation
- Q&A: Coding 'aspiration without pneumonia'
- Q&A tackles coding questions about injections and infusions
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Joint Commission Center announces handoff communication solutions
- Inside best practice: Reduce patient falls with a stoplight
- Searched