Methods to Access Alarm Data for Analysis

Difficulty getting access to alarm data is the elephant in the living room in the house of alarm fatigue. There are lots of conference presentations, webinars and papers about analyzing medical device alarm data. What’s missing are detailed discussions on how to get to the actual alarm data in the first place. This post will present a framework for the hardest part of alarm analysis:  getting access to alarm data so it can be analyzed. We’re going to define the kind of data we’re seeking, where it can be found, the various ways to get access to said data and finally, analytical tools. The vast majority of medical device systems currently in use in hospitals were never intended to provide the means to analyze alarm data. New medical device systems currently under development will likely provide a client app with a nice user interface to do alarm analysis. Some devices currently being sold have add-on products that will provide alarm analysis tools(like the new Spacelabs product pictured above), and some manufacturers have started providing services (to do some variation of what’s described below for customers) to provide access to alarm data. The Role of Alarm Analysis If you take the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on Alarm Management (pdf) and break it down into a basic project plan like this one (pdf), it becomes clear that the actions mandated by the NPSG are focused on consensus building, risk management, prior...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Clinical Alarms Source Type: blogs