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Reducing alarm fatigue for optimal performance: analysis of a multi-unit health system process improvement
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Roberts, Laura D.. Reducing alarm fatigue for optimal performance: analysis of a multi-unit health system process improvement. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-kjw8-ea88

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TitleReducing alarm fatigue for optimal performance: analysis of a multi-unit health system process improvement
NameRoberts, Laura D. (author); Srinivasan, Shankar (chair); Coffman, Frederick (internal member); Roye, G. Dean (outside member); Sweeney, Joseph (outside member); Rutgers University; School of Health Professions
Date Created2021
Other Date2021-01 (degree)
SubjectAlarm fatigue, Biomedical Informatics
Extent1 online resource (xii, 90 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionTechnology in healthcare greatly enhances service delivery, safety, and efficacy yet when systems are not optimized any benefits of the technology are lost. This dissertation examines remote temperature monitoring systems and the inefficiencies of the alarms generated. Using Six Sigma methodology for performance improvement in healthcare, this dissertation focuses process improvement, specifically, reducing alarm/alert fatigue in healthcare generated by temperature monitoring systems. Extant research fails to examine non-patient alarms as distractions endured by healthcare professionals. Temperature and humidity control of the environment is critically important in clinical environments for infection control, pharmaceutical and food storage, and equipment function, among other reasons. Manual monitoring is resource-laden and error-prone, and automated environmental monitoring offers significant time-savings and reallocation of resources to other job tasks. However, without a robust infrastructure and implementation rules problems may arise. The case analysis of a multi-unit health system redesign of automated environmental monitoring highlights the complexity and inherent failures related to alarm management. Further, this case study examines alarm redeployment following11,000 environmental excursion alerts occurred each month with only 22% of those alerts being addressed. Using qualitative data from stakeholders, three research hypotheses were developed and examined relative to an end user:

1. The presence of user policies or procedures for use impacted the number of alarms generated;
2. Regular review of monitoring requirements and consistent system interaction impacted the number of alarms generated; and
3. Alert parameters determined by expert definition or empirically based system use impacted the number of alerts with corrections documented.

Baseline data is compared to post-improvement data to validate hypotheses and determine efficacy of real-time improvements. Continued improvement throughout the course of the project is measurable and sustainable. The author also proposes enhancements and improvements can be realized using six sigma methodology for technology installations that become out-moded to provide optimal performance.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-kjw8-ea88
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Health Professions ETD Collection
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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