title: [Audit of the bedside monitor alarms in a critical care unit].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Quantifying and evaluating the response to the bedside monitor alarms (BMA) by nurses in intensive care unit (ICU).
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective observational study (October 2011-January 2012). Randomized blind audit on alarm management. Alarm programming and alarm limits were related to experience in ICU. We evaluated the response to BMA with the variables: alarm type (relevant/not relevant/alert) and response type. Descriptive analysis of variables for multivariate ANOVA and Chi-square test with SPSS 17.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  434 audits were analyzed. The programming was: Blood pressure (BP) 88.25%, heart rate (HR) 98.62% O(2) saturation (SO) 96.79%, respiratory rate (FR) 65.75%. The alarms originated were BP 49.73%, 10.75% HR, 39.25% SO, 3.27% FS. The nurse responded to 93.3% of them and 50% were treated before 10 sec. 56.16% of the alarms were not relevant, 25.12% relevant and 18.72% alerting. 41.8% were due to handling.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The alarms are programmed/attended by the nurse and there is uniformity in programming/selection limits. 25% of BMA carried therapeutic attitude.
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España. Electronic address: cindiamorales@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morales Sánchez
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Murillo Pérez
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torrente Vela
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García Iglesias
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cornejo Bauer
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López López
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Orejana Martín
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cuenca Solanas
authors.affiliation: UCI de Trauma y Emergencias, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alted López
mesh_terms: D056902:Clinical Alarms; D003422:Critical Care; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011897:Random Allocation
keywords: Alarm; Alarma; Critical care; Cuidados críticos; Enfermería; Nursing; Parameters monitored; Parámetros monitorizados