On April 23, 2003, BMETS had a meeting hosted by MedEquip Biomedical. The following presentation was given by David Harrington of Technology in Medicine, Inc.(Holliston, Mass.) Dave is a Director of special projects for Technology in Medicine Inc. , is a veteran educator/clinical engineer/technology manager and "24x7" contributing writer/editor. Dave also wrote a letter about the Alarms and JCAHO Safety Goal.

JCAHO Goal # 6
Improve the effectiveness of clinical alarm systems

• Implement regular preventive maintenance and testing of alarm systems.
  - You now do the devices, how do you document the tests and who does the system alarms and where is the documentation?
• Alarm settings
  - Assure that alarms are activated with appropriate settings and are sufficiently audible with respect to distances and competing noise within the unit.
• What alarms are we talking about? alarms list.xls - spreadsheet
  - Monitors
  - Ventilators
  - IV pumps
  - Support devices
  - Compressed gases
  - Air flow
• What alarms are we not talking about? Audible Alarm Rev.xls - spreadsheet
  - Nurse call
  - Panic buttons
  - Abduction
  - Property loss
  - Switchboard connected alarms
• What alarms can we ignore?
  - Alarms on devices that require an operator to be present.
  - Alarms that do not require human actions.
  - Alarms under the control of outside agencies.
• What needs to be done?
  - Be sure your PM SOP’s have a statement on checking the alarms on devices.
  - Inform the Clinical Education department that they must include alarm training in their orientation and continuing education programs.
  - Document what you do..
  - Train your staff on what alarms are important.
  - Write a department policy on alarms.
  - Be prepared to handle problems that others will not handle.
  - Be proactive not reactive.
• Problem Departments
  - Respiratory
  - General care units
  - Special Care Nurseries
  - Rehab floors
• Conclusions
  - This is a no win for the Biomeds.
  - All problems will become yours.
  - Get your policies in place quickly and make others follow you.