Emory University Hospital Leads Efforts To Reduce Consequences Of Alarm Fatigue

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August 3rd, 2018

A few years ago, Emory University Hospital’s medical intensive care unit had up to 1,400 alarms per bed per day, a cacophony of beeping, buzzing, ringing and pinging. Emory was among the first to take on the issue of alarm fatigue, where the staff eventually can become desensitized and the alarms turn into background noise.

Daniel Mayer / wikimedia commons

It’s a normal afternoon in the medical intensive care unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, one of six ICUs in the hospital. The hushed voices of staff members mix with the occasional beeping of alarm monitors.

Ray Snider is the head nurse of the 17-bed unit. As he’s walking along the hospital’s winding hallways and passing the long row of patient rooms, he points to different machines.

“There’s an IV pump, as well as the patient’s ventilator,” he explains. “Those are just some of the things we’re getting alarms from.”

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