• Benedikt Lorenz, Jürgen Peters, and Ulrich H Frey.
• Anasthesiol Intensivmed Notfallmed Schmerzther. 2017 Jul 1; 52 (7-08): 564-570.

AbstractDue to growing technisation of intensive care the number of devices with integrated alarm systems is steadily increasing. However, most of the sounding alarms are false alarms causing high levels of frustration, aggression and inappropriate behaviour amongst the medical personnel. All this jeopardises patient care. The high number of alarms also disturb the patients interrupting their sleep and provokes anxiety, and also increases the already high noise level in intensive care units and the operating theatre alike. In the interest of the medical staff and our patients, we should reduce the high frequency of false alarms by using modern alarm algorithms techniques, lower both noise exposure and stress load with the help of modern individualized alarm systems and by increasing awareness on the dangers of alarm fatigue through training and by using individualized patient-related alarm limits. Despite economic challenges hospitals and intensive care units should optimize staffing, thereby lowering the risk to patients and improving employee satisfaction.Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

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