Dive Brief:
- The Joint Commission has issued a new National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) requiring accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals to improve their clinical alarm systems.
- The Joint Commission will implement the alarm NPSG into phases; the first, beginning Jan. 1, 2014, is designed to heighten awareness of potential risks associated with clinical alarms, and the second, beginning Jan. 1, 2016, introduces requirements to address those risks.
- The new rules attempt to address "alarm fatigue," in which clinicians become distracted and overwhelmed by the number of clinical alarms devices tracking patients can put out each day.
Dive Insight:
Alarm fatigue is a major problem for clinicians working in a hospital setting, and introducing a program to mitigate the risks arising from alarm fatigue is well overdue. As the Joint Commission notes, in a survey of more than 1600 hospitals found that 90% of respondents stated that alarm management with a safety issue -- and that less than 50% has organization-wide process in place to address the alarm management concerns. It's good to see the Joint Commission take this on.