New alarm system reduces caregiver fatigue
Global solutions provider Ascom has announced a new North American integrated clinical alarm management solution with Dräger, a global producer of medical and safety technology, to integrate Ascom Unite Connect for clinical systems software with Dräger Infinity patient monitoring systems.
The joint clinical alarm management solution extends the reach of patient alarms generated by Dräger’s patient monitoring system to mobile caregivers. Critical data and related contextual information are sent directly to the caregiver’s mobile device, along with waveform images, adding a contextual dimension by helping to increase awareness of a patient’s condition and enabling nurses to distinguish between artefacts, false alarms, and real alarms. Patients benefit from a quicker response time to events.
Ascom’s Unite Connect for clinical systems is already in use at European hospitals in France, Belgium and Norway. It is a software application that uses customisable alarm filters to help minimise non-actionable alerts that can cause workflow bottlenecks. This enables nurses to focus on patient care more effectively rather than responding to alerts that do not require action.
“Effective clinical alarm management continues to be a high focus for health systems and hospitals. As the use of mobile technologies expands in healthcare, so does the opportunity to extend alarm management to mobile caregivers,” said Steve Menet, Senior Vice-President of Sales for Dräger. “Our new solution with Ascom provides customers the opportunity to communicate actionable patient information from our Infinity patient monitoring systems to clinicians, while filtering out nuisance alarms that contribute to alarm fatigue.”
“By collaborating with Dräger, Ascom can help hospitals supplement and enhance their alarm management solutions. Leveraging Unite Connect for clinical systems’ customisable alarm filtering helps mobile caregivers avoid unnecessary work interruptions, limiting their exposure to low-priority, routine alerts and helping reduce caregiver alarm fatigue,” said Rob Goldman, President, Ascom North America.