文章轉貼:Maintaining Patient Monitors

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Maintaining Patient Monitors (原文24x7 Blog)

A recent report in the Boston Globe examined patient alarms in hospitals and the various problems concerning them. Chief among these issues was incessant alarms—critical and otherwise—that hospital staffs ignore because of their overwhelming quantity. To wit, the article notes,

“On a 15-bed unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, staff documented an average of 942 alarms per day — about 1 critical alarm every 90 seconds.”

過多的警報聲響(約90秒就有一次@15床的ICU)造成照護人員對警報的作用己經有點麻痺,甚至於有點視而不見...造成臨床病人的安全問題。

According to the article, “Some studies have found more than 85% of alarms are false, meaning that the patient is not in any danger.

Over time this can make nurses less and less likely to respond urgently to the sound.” In response, some hospitals have begun tweaking the programming of monitors to avoid these unnecessary alarms and saving staff from what it refers to as “alarm fatigue.” Other solutions include daily checks on monitors to ensure proper functionality, as well as daily replacement of monitor batteries.

據統計，約超過85%的警報是假性的，這也造成照護人員對警報的不信任及麻痺，有些醫院甚至於利用Monitor內的程式，把alarm給關掉，以減少alarm的疲勞轟炸。還有其他如每日檢查Monitor以確保功能正常及每天更換電池(?)

The article also cites biomedical engineers that claim hospital staff have, “disconnected monitor speakers, taped over them, and turned down volume, all to escape the constant noise.”

同樣的狀況也會引起醫學工程人員的抱怨，因為照護人員把monitor的speaker拔掉、用膠帶封住或減小音量等以避免這種幾近於常態式的alarm噪音。

What steps do you/your hospital take to ensure the proper functionality of patient monitors? How frequently do you service these monitors in order to ensure patient safety?

在各位服服的醫院裡，您會採取什麼步驟來確保Monitro的功能使用正常，維修保養的頻率要多頻繁才可以確保病人的安全?

In addition, the Boston Globe enlisted the ECRI Institute to analyze much of the FDA data on the patient monitoring systems. In honor of National Patient Safety Awareness Week—March 6 through March 12, 2011—the ECRI Institute is offering a free download of the full risk analysis, "Clinical Alarms.”

除此之外，the Boston Globe在國家病人病全週(National Patient Safety Awareness Week)，從2011,3/6~3/12，引用了ECRI對FDA對Monitor的資料分析，同時也提供免費下載有關"臨床警報分析Clinical Alarms"