Hospitals rank alarm fatigue as top patient safety concern

Nineteen out of 20 hospitals surveyed rank alarm fatigue as a top patient safety concern, according to the results of a national survey presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia.
Alarm fatigue occurs when clinicians become desensitized to the constant noise of alarms or overwhelmed by the sounds and turn alarms down or off. The problem has become so widespread that last month The Joint Commission named it a National Patient Safety Goal and now requires accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals to improve their systems.
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Read more about: National Patient Safety Goal