The constant beeping of medical devices in hospitals is causing “alarm fatigue” and putting patients’ lives at risk.

Hospital workers have become desensitized to the noise, which sometimes causes them to ignore the alarms, and has resulted in at least two dozen deaths each year, according to a new report by the Joint Commission, the national organization that accredits hospitals.

The experts said:

“The number of alarm signals per patient per day can reach several hundred depending on the unit within the hospital, translating to thousands of alarm signals on every unit and tens of thousands of alarm signals throughout the hospital every day.”

Some examples of beeping devices include:

The alarms go off for various reasons – some beep when the device is not functioning, and some beep when there is an emergency. According to the Joint Commission, this can cause alarm fatigue and puts patients at risk because they aren’t getting treated right away.

Dr. Ana McKee, the executive vice president and chief medical officer of the Commission, explained that the profusion of technology is not helping the situation, with no standardization for what the alarms are indicating.

The authors added:

“Other issues associated with effective alarm management include too many medical devices with alarms or individual alarms that are difficult to hear. Pre-set or default settings also may cause problems because the device sounds a warning even when no action or decision by a caregiver is required. Rather than calling attention to a patient’s needs, these settings may distract caregivers.”

The Commission pointed out that their estimate of potential deaths associated with beeping devices is significantly lower than the reports found in data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Over 500 deaths possibly related to hospital alarms are listed by the FDA between January 2005 and June 2010. However, that data consists of obligatory reports of malfunctions and in some instances the association to a patient’s death is very slight.

Between January 2009 and June 2012, 80 deaths and 13 serious injuries were reported in the Commission’s database. These reports were voluntarily given by hospitals to the Commission, which decided that there was an obvious association to the device.

There probably are many more issues that have not been reported, partially due to the fact that ignoring or misunderstanding a beeping device led to a whole series of occurrences that resulted in injury or death, and remembering back to that first mistake can be challenging, McKee explained.

According to the Joint Commission, alarm-system events that lead to injury or death included:

  • delays in treatment
  • medication errors
  • patient falls

Although the most common reason for these events was due to alarm fatigue, other problems included:

  • not enough staffers to respond to alarms
  • equipment malfunctions
  • misunderstanding alarm signals

It is very difficult for hospital workers to properly help these patients due to the lack of standardization and the proliferation of alarms and technology.

“Alarm fatigue and management of alarms are important safety issues that we must confront,” McKee said. It is critical that doctors and nurses become trained in safe alarm management.

This alert will help hospitals become aware of these problems and result in changes that can save the lives of patients.

Written by Sarah Glynn