title: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing: burden of transient noncritical monitor alarms in a trauma resuscitation unit.
abstract: We examined the types of patient monitor alarms encountered in the trauma resuscitation unit of a major level 1 trauma center. Over a 1-year period, 316688 alarms were recorded for 6701 trauma patients (47 alarms/patient). Alarms were more frequent among patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 8 or less. Only 2.4% of all alarms were classified as "patient crisis," with the rest in the presumably less critical categories "patient advisory," "patient warning," and "system warning." Nearly half of alarms were ≤5 seconds in duration. In this patient population, a 2-second delay would reduce alarms by 25%, and a delay of 5 seconds would reduce all alarms by 49%.
authors.affiliation: Shock Trauma Anesthesia Research Organized Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine and R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Colton
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dinardo
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Eric Z
authors.initials: EZ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: DuBose
authors.forename: Lynn G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Stansbury
authors.forename: Colin F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Catriona
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Deborah M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Scalea
mesh_terms: D056902:Clinical Alarms / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012151:Resuscitation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000191:economics; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000191:economics*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy