Objective: To characterize the rate of monitoring alarms by alarm priority, signal type, and developmental age in a Level-IIIB Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) population.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of 2,294,687 alarm messages from Philips monitors in a convenience sample of 917 NICU patients, covering 12,001 patient-days. We stratified alarm rates by alarm priority, signal type, postmenstrual age (PMA) and birth weight (BW), and reviewed and adjudicated over 21,000 critical alarms.

Results: Of all alarms, 3.6% were critical alarms, 55.0% were advisory alarms, and 41.4% were device alerts. Over 60% of alarms related to oxygenation monitoring. The average alarm rate (±SEM) was 177.1 ± 4.9 [median: 135.9; IQR: 89.2-213.3] alarms/patient-day; the medians varied significantly with PMA and BW (p < 0.001) in U-shaped patterns, with higher rates at lower and higher PMA and BW. Based on waveform reviews, over 99% of critical arrhythmia alarms were deemed technically false.

Conclusions: The alarm burden in this NICU population is very significant; the average alarm rate significantly underrepresents alarm rates at low and high PMA and BW. Virtually all critical arrhythmia alarms were artifactual.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6092211PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41372-018-0095-xDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

monitoring alarms
8
neonatal intensive
8
intensive care
8
care unit
8
alarm priority
8
priority signal
8
signal type
8
alarms
6
alarm
5
epidemiology patient
4

Similar Publications

Continuous monitoring on the general ward leads to more and earlier interventions to prevent clinical deterioration. These clinical actions influence outcomes and may serve as an indicator of impending deterioration. This study aims to correlate clinical actions with clinical endpoints and deviating vital signs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

: Attaining adequate oxygenation in critically ill patients undergoing invasive ventilation necessitates intense monitoring through pulse oximetry (SpO) and frequent manual adjustments of ventilator settings like the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO) and the level of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). Our aim was to compare the quality of oxygenation with the use of automated ventilation provided by INTELLiVENT-Adaptive Support Ventilation (ASV) vs. ventilation that is not automated, i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Smoke is a critical indicator of forest fires, often detectable before flames ignite. Accurate smoke identification in remote sensing images is vital for effective forest fire monitoring within Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, existing detection methods frequently falter in complex real-world scenarios, where variable smoke shapes and sizes, intricate backgrounds, and smoke-like phenomena (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the levels and sources of noise in the emergency intensive care unit (EICU) of an emergency department and investigate their effects on the sleep quality of conscious patients.

Methods: A study was conducted on patients admitted to the EICU from December 2020 to December 2023. They were categorised according to their sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Continuous vital sign monitoring of patients recovering from surgery on general wards: a narrative review.

Br J Anaesth

January 2025

Perioperative Outcomes and Informatics Collaborative, Winston-Salem, NC, USA; Outcomes Research Consortium, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Anesthesiology, Center of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Most postoperative deaths occur on general wards, often linked to complications associated with untreated changes in vital signs. Monitoring in these units is typically intermittent checks each shift or maximally every 4-6 h, which misses prolonged periods of subtle changes in physiology that can herald a critical downstream event. Continuous monitoring of vital signs is therefore intuitively necessary for patient safety.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!