Alarms on various clinical devices are made to call the attention of the caregiver in charge of the patient or if the device conditions deviate from a predetermined ‘normal’ status. These wireless bed alarms are usually considered to be a key tool in the improvement of the safety of the patients. The main purpose of these alarm systems is related to “communicating information which requires a response or awareness by the operator.” In most cases, the normal conditions are already preset in the patient alarm wireless, while in others it is requires to directly set the parameter limits. The user usually has the freedom to turn wireless alarm for elderly on or off, and to also set the volume of the audible alarm output. The alarm information may also be transmitted away from the bedside to a quite remote location that could be down the hall, or just some distance away. Such transmission may also be disabled, either intentionally or inadvertently.
When one of the wireless bed alarms for home is triggered, the caregiver is given the responsibility of noting the alarm, identifying its source, and further responding appropriately. The effective alarm setting, noting and responding is a design, user, and systems issue.
From the design perspective, alarms should all be set, their status should be easily determined even if it is not directly visible, and the identification of and specificity of a triggered alarm should also be unambiguous and easy to determine. The alarm system must also be easily designed for all the intended environments of patient care.
From the use perspective, all users must be adequately trained, and the number of staff members must also be suitable to the setting and the number of patients. However, it is widely recognized that training is not itself a suitable or effective cure for the equipments that are poorly designed and are overly challenging. The best practice cognitive engineering and human factors strategies formulated in order to improve patient safety are not always followed in the current clinical alarm system designs.
It is also important to understand that the users will only come to rely on the alarms to call their attention to adverse conditions. Thus clinical alarms, to varying degrees, can become substitutes for the degree of caregiver attention that would be best required if there were not an alarm system in place. In this regard, the alarms are sometimes viewed as a suitable basis for reduction of staff levels or skill requirements. In other cases, the alarms are the primary source of information if the situation triggering the alarm is not directly observable. When the caregivers tend to rely on alarms, it becomes quite essential for the alarms to perform to their expectations.
Author’s Bio: The author is an avid blogger. This article is about wireless alarms.